'FLORENCE 



SOUTHERN 







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GzstagnoJo 



Scale of 



20 



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LIBRARY 

OF THE 

University of California. 



Class * c^ 9^ ' 



SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 



.A-R^ 



OF THE 



UWIVERSITY 

OF 



i 




SIENA : THE DUOMO FROM FOX lEBRANDA 



SIENA AND SOUTHERN 
TUSCANY 



BT 

EDWARD HUTTON 

AUTHOR OF "THE CITIES OF UMBRIA," ETC. 



WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY 

O. F. M. WARD 

AND TWELVE OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS 



Of THE 



UNIVERSITY 

OF 



NEW YORK 

THE MAGMILLAN COMPANY 

1910 



3 






TO 

MY FRIEND 

F. MASON PERKINS 



297231 



PREFACE 

IN any journey through Southern Tuscany the traveller, if 
he be wise, will set out from Empoli and use the old 
mediaeval highway, Via Francigena, at least as far as Siena. 
If he come by train from Florence or the North it is at 
Empoli by the Val d' Elsa that he will enter this beautiful 
country ; and, indeed, for all practical purposes the railway 
follows the road up the valley so far as the lovely city which 
on her triune hill seems to rule all this southern part of 
Tuscany, made up as it is of hill and vale and desert. The 
great highway, which, whether afoot or in the train, the 
traveller will thus follow to Siena is, as it were, the backbone 
of the Sanese. By it, and by it alone, whether from Rome or 
from the North, Europe, the life of Europe, passed into this 
great corner of Tuscany. 

Unknown to the Romans, the Via Francigena, or Francesca, 
for it is known by either name, was, as its name implies, the 
way of the Franks into Italy, the one thing maybe that any- 
where in the world was created by the Dark Ages, as we so 
rightly call that vast period of time in which the light of Rome 
seemed to be extinguished and Europe at the mercy of the 
Barbarians. But, as though to confirm us in our conviction 
that nothing which was then achieved was really independent 
of the Capitol, the Via Francigena was both at its beginning 
and its ending dependent on Roman work, for it begins as 

vu 



viii SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

a branch of the Via Aemilia and it ends at the gate of the 
Eternal City. 

Leaving the Via AemiUa, the great highway of Cisalpine 
Gaul at Parma, it crossed the Apennines and entered Italy 
proper under Monte Bardone by the Cisa pass, descending into 
the western valleys at Pontremoli in the Lunigiana and entering 
what later became the Grand Duchy, what we call Tuscany, 
at Sarzana and forgotten Luni. Thence by the Salto della 
Cervia it entered the Lucchese, passed through the city of 
Lucca and by Altopascio and Galleno found Val d' Arno at 
Fuccechio. Crossing the Arno there below Empoli, under 
S. Miniato al Tedesco, it entered Val d' Elsa and, following 
that stream upwards, passed the cities that are our theme — 
Castel-Fiorentino, Certaldo, Poggibonsi. Climbing thence into 
the Sanese, it passed Staggia, and entermg Siena by Porta 
CamoUia, left it at Porta Romana, whence it crossed the 
tawny, uptossed, and sun-baked desert whose capital is 
Buonconvento. Climbing again, it reached the foot-hills at 
S. Quirico in Val d' Orcia, and entering the profound and 
barren gorge under Mont' Amiata on the east, took the Val di 
Paglia at the lost city of Callimala under Radicofani, passing 
thence as to-day to Acquapendente, Bolsena, Montefiascone, 
Viterbo, and Sutri, entering Rome at last by the Porta Castello 
in the shadow of Castel S. Angelo, close by S. Peter's Church. 

By this road came Philip Augustus in 1191, by this road 
came the predatory Emperors. Nor, indeed, till our own day 
did the Via Francigena fall into disuse. By it our fathers 
came to Rome, so that in every old book of Italian travel, 
from Richard Lassells, writing in the seventeenth century, to 
W. D. Howells, writing in the middle of the nineteenth, it has 
a part. And though for no other cause, yet for this it shall 
be our road too ; and though we shall often leave it, we shall 
always return to it, till at Radicofani, on the verge of the 
Patrimony, the last outpost of Siena in the South, we leave it 
for a new way home. 



PREFACE ix 

I must acknowledge help received from a host ot people in 
writing this book, and my thanks are especially due to two 
among my friends, Mr. William Hey wood and Mr. F. Mason 
Perkins, without whose sympathy and generosity this book 
would have been more imperfect than it is. 

E. H. 

July, igio. 



CONTENTS 



PREFACE 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. CASTEL-FIORENTINO ..... I 

II. CERTALDO ...... 13 

III. S. GIMIGNANO . . . . . .26 

IV. VOLTERRA ...... 39 

V. COLLE, POGGIBONSI, S. LUCCHESE, STAGGIA, MONTE- 

RIGGIONI, AND BADIA A ISOLA . . - S^ 

VI. SIENA ...... 68 

VII. POLITICAL SIENA . . . . .75' 

VIII. SIENA — THE PALAZZO PUBBLICO ... 93 

IX. SIENA — CATHEDRAL GROUP . . . . IO4 

X. SIENA— TERZO DI CITTA . . . ,124 

XI. SIENA— TERZO DI S. MARTINO . . . I29 

XII. SIENA— TERZO DI CAMOLLIA . . . 1 35 

XIII. THE GALLERY OF SIENA . . . . 148 

XIV. TO THE OSSERVANZA, IL MONISTERO, BELCARO, 

AND LECCETO . • . . . 160 

XV. ASCIANO . . . . . .171 



xii SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XVI. MONTE OLIVETO . . . . • 179 

XVII. TO RAPDLANO, SERRE, AND LUCIGNANO . . 198 

XVIII. TO SINALUNGA, FOIANO, AND TORRITA . . 207 

XIX. MONTEPULCIANO . . . . .2X8 

XX. PIENZA AND S. QUIRICO D' ORCIA . . 229 

XXI. BUONCONVENTO, MONTALCINO, AND BADIA S. 

ANTIMO . . . . . .239 

XXII. CASTIGLIONE D' ORCIA AND RADICOFANI . 252 

XXIII. SARTEANO, CETONA, AND CHIUSI . . .267 

XXIV. CORTONA AND ST. MARGARET . . .279 
XXV. AREZZO AND BORGO SAN SEPOLCRO . . 295 

NOTES ...... 319 

INDEX ....... 335 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



IN COLOUR 

SIENA : THE DUOMO FROM FONTEBRANDA . . Frontispiece 

FAaNG PAGE 

COURT OF PALAZZO PUBBLICO, CERTALDO . . 1 4 

SAN GIMIGNANO . . . . . .26 

VOLTERRA : PORTA ALL' ARCO .... 42 

IL CAMPO, SIENA . . . . . .68 

SIENA FROM THE VALLEY ..... 72 

INTERIOR OF DUOMO, SIENA . . . . . I06 

THE MANGIA TOWER, SIENA . . . . 124 

SIENA : FONTENUOVA . . . . . I36 

SIENA : FONTEBRANDA . . . . I40 

MONT' AMI ATA . . . . . . . 166 

LA MADONNA DI S. BIAGIO, MONTEPULCIANO . . 226 

PIENZA . . . . . . . .232 

THE GATE OF BUONCONVENTO . . . . 240 

CORTONA ....... 280 

AREZZO : PIAZZA VASARI ..... 296 



xiv SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

IN MONOTONE 

FACING PAGE 

PALAZZO PRETORIO, CERTALDO . . . .20 

{Photo : Alinari) 

GUIDORICCIO DA FOGLIANO . . . . . 98 

From a fresco by Simone Martini, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena 
(Photo : Alinari) 

PEACE . . . . . . . .102 

From detail of fresco in Sala della Pace, by A. Lorenzetti, Palazzo Pubblico, 
Siena 
{Photo : Alinari) 

CENTRE PANEL OF THE MAJESTAS BY DUCCIO, OPERA 

DEL DUOMO, SIENA . . . . Il8 

(Photo : Alinari) 

MADONNA AND CHILD . . . . . . I32 

From the painting by Lippo Memmi, Servi, Siena 
(Photo : Alinari) 

MADONNA AND CHILD . . . . . 158 

From the painting by Neroccio, Gallery, Siena 
(Plioto : Lombardi) 

ALTARPIECE BY SASSETTA, COLLEGIATA, ASCIANO . . 176 

(Photo : Alinari) 

ST. BENEDICT RECEIVES MAURO AND PLACIDO . . 1 88 

From the painting by Sodoma, Monte Olivero 
(Photo : Alinari) 

ALTARPIECE OF THE ASSUMPTION BY TADDEO DT BARTOLO, 

DUOMO MONTEPULCIANO . . . .2x8 

(Photo : Alinari) 

ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN . . . .236 

From the painting by Vecchietta, Duomo, Pienza 
(Photo : Alinari) 

ANNUNCIATION . . . . . . . 286 

From the painting by Fra Angelico, Gesii, Cortona 
(Photo : Alinari) 

ALTARPIECE BY LUCA SIGNORELLI, PINACOTECA, AREZZO 314 

(Photo : Alinari) 



SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 




SIENA AND SOUTHERN 
TUSCANY 

I 

CASTEL-FIORENTINO 

CASTEL-FIORENTINO is, as you soon find if you are 
wise enough to be content to stay there, a busy and 
picturesque little country town, full of the life of the country, 
chaffering contadini^ great, slowly moving oxen, and the happy 
laughter of children, which is the music of Tuscany, Origi- 
nally set high on its fair hillside, it has run into the plain and 
mingled itself inextricably with its own borgo^ that lies at the 
foot of the hill towards the railway and the sleepy Elsa. The 
whole place in its littleness and shadowy climbing ways is 
charming, and no one surely who has stayed there ever left the 
little inn in the lower town without regret. 

But the lower town, in spite of its beautiful churches, 
S. Verdiana, S. Francesco, and S. Chiara over the water, 
gives you no idea of the delight and ancientness that await 
you in the Castello, the true Castel-Fiorentino, which climbs 
the hill, in the shadow of which the borgo lies, so precipitately. 

The town gets its Florentine name, Repetti assures us, 
either from the fact that it was anciently under the civil and 
religious jurisdiction of the Bishops of Florence, or perhaps 
from the fact that it stood on the confines of the Florentine 
contado. But tradition, always the best guide, assures us that 

B I 



2 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

it was given to the place by the people themselves out of a 
devotion very rare and strange for Florence, their mistress, 
and that in recognition of their love the Republic granted 
them her own arms, the crimson lily in a field of silver, which 
the town bears to this day. 

However that may be, Castel-Fiorentino was certainly not 
the creation of the Republic of Florence. She was already 
old in 1 164, when we first hear of her as one of the feuds of 
the Conti Alberti, confirmed to them by Frederic I. But 
feud of the Alberti though she was, it was not they who ruled 
her, but the Bishops of Florence, and in 12 15 we find Bishop 
Giovanni da Velletri compelling his terrazzani to build their 
houses no higher than thirteen bracciay though the borghigiani 
of S. Lorenzo in Mugello were allowed to build houses of 
fifteen. This seems to have been a sore point with the Castel- 
Fiorentini seven hundred years ago. In 1231, however, they 
obtained a certain relief in this as in other matters from Bishop 
Ardingo, winning the right to elect their own dispensers of 
Justice, provided always that the Bishop approved their choice. 
In 1252 they seem to have elected their own Podesta. They 
chose Forese di Buonaccorso Adimari, a Florentine magnate, 
and no doubt this was a further blow to the jurisdiction of the 
Bishop. 

But the history of Castel-Fiorentino, in spite of the position 
of the town in the Val d' Elsa, over the Via Francigena, is 
without real importance. Only twice, indeed, did it appear in 
any of those moving and dramatic scenes that are so plentiful 
in the story of the thirteenth century in Tuscany. The first of 
these occasions was by far the greater, and is a good example 
of the little town's devotion to Florence. 

On 27 September, 1197, the Emperor Frederic I died, and 
his death, as we know, was the beginning of the ruin, total 
and complete, that a hundred and fifty years later finally over- 
took the Empire. It was a moment for bold action, and 
Florence was great enough to seize it. It was, however, the 
people of San Miniato al Tedesco, in Val d' Arno, who gave 
the signal. They destroyed the fortress held by the Germans 



CASTEL-FIORENTINO 3 

under which they lived, and not long after the walls of 
S. Genesio. This was the first act in the great movement 
that Florence now engineered for her own freedom and 
that of Tuscany. At this moment, so unfortunate for the 
Empire, she conceived and formed the Tuscan League, which 
was finally arranged at S. Genesio on 11 November, 1197, 
when the cities of Lucca, Siena, and S. Miniato, with the 
Bishop of Volterra, swore to maintain it. The treaty thus 
made bound the signatories to an alliance for their common 
defence against all enemies of the League as well as to make 
no peace with " any Emperor, or King, or Prince, or Duke, or 
Marquis " without the consent of the League, and to attack 
all cities, towns, counts, and bishops who refused to join the 
League when asked to do so. What did this treaty mean ? 
Certainly the independence of Tuscany, its refusal to admit 
the claims of either Emperor or Pope. But it meant much 
more than that. It meant the consolidation of their contadi 
by the various cities, and the final ruin of the country nobility : 
for the castelli^ the towns, and small domains were only to be 
admitted to the League as dependents of the legitimate owners 
of the territories in which they stood. From this there was but 
one exception, Poggibonsi, because she was claimed by many. 

Two Rectors were appointed to govern the League, and, as 
it happens, they were solemnly sworn in at S. Ippolito di 
Castel-Fiorentino, the ancient pieve^ now a mere chapel, 
about a mile from the Castello, on 4 December, 1197. The 
first of them was the Bishop of Volterra, and the other the 
Florentine Consul, Acerbo. 

But, as we have seen, Castel-Fiorentino was a feud of the 
Conti Alberti, and they had not yet joined the League, neither 
had their feuds of Certaldo and Mangone or their fortress of 
Semifonte. Yet Castel-Fiorentino, the last of Florentine 
towns, far in the contado^ was the meeting-place of the 
League. Was it she who brought the Conti Alberti low? 
We read that Arezzo joined the League in December, the 
Count Guido gave his word in February, 1198, and on the 
7 th of that same month Count Alberto also promised 



4 SIENA AND SOUTHEKN TUSCANY 

allegiance, but in signing the treaty with him Florence 
expressly reserved the right to attack the fort of Semifonte, 
and to procure the submission of the Alberti feuds of Certaldo 
and Mangone, "even by force if required." Thus Castel- 
Fiorentino bore her part in one of the few beneficent revolu- 
tions that Tuscany has suffered. 

The second incident in the history of Italy in which the 
little town figures befell in 1260, and must have been to her 
an occasion of weeping. For Florence, her friend, was 
brought low; the Ghibellines of Siena, with their German 
allies and the Florentine exiles, had " broken and put to 
rout" the "ancient Florentine people" at Montaperti, and 
Castel-Fiorentino was for a moment the meeting-place of the 
heads of the Ghibelline party. 

In the fourteenth century Castel-Fiorentino figures some- 
what more prominently. In 131 2 she broke the contingent 
of Rupert of Flanders as it left the Emperor at Poggibonsi. 
In 13 13 she was unsuccessfully besieged by Henry on his way 
to Siena,^ and in various years, notably in 1359, she was hard 
put to it ; but on the whole her history was more peaceable 
than might be expected, since she was on the great highway. 

Happy Castel-Fiorentino ! She was able and content to 
till her fields always as she does to-day, to tend her vine- 
yards, to sow the corn under the olives, and to gather it in with 
songs, while the armies of Germany, the companies of adven- 
ture, the gay chivalry of France thundered by to destruction. 
Is not her story, which will never be told, one of those which 
should console us most in a world so busy about resounding 
trifles ? She has no history ; but in her untold story the 
romance of Europe lies hid — the story of men like ourselves 
going up and down day by day about their business, labouring 
in the fields in a hard partnership with Nature, chaffering in 
the market-place, rising at dawn, resting at midday, singing at 
evening, loving a little and weeping much — if we could but 
read it ! 

But if Castel-Fiorentino is without a history, if she never 
' See note i, p. 319. 



CASTEL-FIORENTINO 5 

produced a great man or a great artist, she is by no means 
devoid of the consolation of beauty. She herself is as charm- 
ing and picturesque as can be ; her churches are spacious and 
full of light, and there, too, you may find many a picture of a 
rare and exquisite country grace that only her lovers have 
discovered. 

Now, of her churches S. Biagio, the old pieve in the 
Castello, has been chief since S. Ippolito, a mile away, fell 
into disuse. There, too, in the upper town is the Collegiata 
S. Lorenzo, while in the lower town is S. Francesco, now 
closed, though not, I hope, for ever; and best of all S. 
Verdiana, and across the river S. Chiara, once a convent 
of Poor Clares, but now in the hands of the Osservanti. 

On the morning of the day after I had the happiness to 
return to Italy — and it was a fine morning too — finding myself, 
as I have told, in Castel-Fiorentino, loving her already for 
her happiness, I set out to see what was to be seen, and the 
first thing I came upon was the church of S. Francesco, 
closed and dumb. And they told me the Government had 
closed it as no longer safe, and with truly surprising generosity 
had made a magnificent grant of one hundred and sixty lire — 
say six pounds and eight shillings — for its repair ! This I 
learned chiefly from an old contadina who lived in the disused 
convent, and presently when we were friends she let me into 
the church. 

Now, S. Francesco, as I knew, had originally been founded 
by the conventuals of the Order who established themselves 
here in 1230. It is a fine church of a single nave, but 
neglect has allowed it to fall into a condition of disrepair that 
is really dangerous. In the choir I found Giottesque frescoes 
of the life of S. Francis as at S. Croce in Florence, and opposite 
to them a Crucifixion of S. Peter as in the Roman altarpiece 
attributed to Giotto, and as at Assisi. 

In the nave are further spoiled wonders. To the right of 
the west door is a damaged fresco of the SS. Trinita. On 
the right wall is S. Francis enthroned with the three virtues — 
Poverty, Obedience, and Chastity — and four angels, two of 



6 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

whom bear the insignia of the Passion. These lovely 
fragments, and they are very lovely, are by Cenno di Ser 
Francesco Cenni. Further, on the right, I found a fragment 
of a Madonna at Annunciation, and almost opposite to it on 
the left wall a fine head of S. Peter. Evidently the whole 
church was once covered with frescoes till the blindness of 
fools hid them under the whitewash, so that these fragments 
are all that we may yet see. 

From S. Francesco I passed on to the beautiful and 
spacious church of S. Verdiana close by, standing over an 
early Christian chapel, now a crypt, dedicated to S. Antonio 
Abate. The great church was built long ago by the people 
of Castel-Fiorentino to their patron saint, S. Verdiana. Over 
the second altar to the left is a spoiled work by Granacci, 
a Madonna and Child with S. Sebastian and S. Francis. The 
church itself, indeed, holds very little that has any interest for 
us ; but in the sacristies there are treasures. In the first is a 
spoiled Trecento picture of S. Verdiana between two snakes. 
In the second, beside a Botticelliesque Pieta and a Crucifixion 
by some pupil of Ghirlandajo, is one of the most astonishing 
eikons in Italy, a marvellous Madonna by Taddeo Gaddi 
himself, which in its monumental weight and power one can 
only compare with the famous Giotto of the Florence 
Academy. 

I spent the morning in these two churches, and then in the 
afternoon crossed the river to S. Chiara, a charming and quiet 
convent founded in the thirteenth century by some Poor 
Clares from the Marca, to whom in 1278 the Contessa 
Beatrice di Capraja left a legacy of fifty lire. To-day, however, 
the convent is in the occupation of the Osservanti. It was 
one of them — "a friar of orders grey," who seemed, indeed, to 
have stepped out of the song, so jovial and fat was he — who, 
in answer to my call, came out of his siesta to show me the 
church. The church is delightful, filled with a country peace 
and scattered with sun and shade. Over an altar on the left 
I found one of those things I love best — a splendid Giotto- 
esque Crucifix, into which the love and faith of the thirteenth 



CASTEL-FIORENTINO 7 

century seem immediately to have passed. Over an altar on 
the opposite wall stands a picture of the Madonna and Child 
with Saints, of the school of Vasari, a late sixteenth-century 
work full of mastery and all the later realism of painting, but 
curiously lacking in the assurance of peace. 

Behind the high altar are two surprising figures of life-size 
carved in wood at the end of the fifteenth century and 
painted. They represent the Blessed Virgin Annunciate and 
S. Gabriel, archangel. To the delight of Fra Lorenzo, my 
guide, the arms of the Virgin moved, being flexibly jointed, 
as he showed me. But apart from this childishness, which he 
was so right to enjoy, the figures are fine of their kind ; the 
Madonna, indeed, has the same rhythm as a French or 
English work in ivory of the thirteenth century. 

The quiet beauty of the church, the eager chatter of Fra 
Lorenzo, caused me to linger here, and that was my good 
fortune. For just as I was about to leave, as I said farewell to 
Fra Lorenzo at the church door, a woman came towards us, 
and, greeting the friar, at once knelt down on the threshold, 
just under the lintel of the door, and prepared herself to be 
churched. With her came two ragged urchins and a little 
black dog. In the great shady nave the children played with 
the dog^ quite at home in the house of their Father, while 
Fra Lorenzo, excusing himself, went into the sacristy and 
brought forth a great taper, which he placed in the good 
woman's hand, and a large book, all in Latin, out of which he 
proceeded to read some prayers. I cannot tell you what a 
charming and old-world picture this made, recalling happier 
days. The children in the shadow playing with the little black 
dog ; the good woman who had just brought forth a child 
kneeling in the sunshine, holding her taper carefully, on the 
threshold of the church ; Fra Lorenzo in his surplice, unctuous 
and sleek, reciting the Office — it was as though by some good 
fortune certain centuries had never happened, and we were 
back in those scarcely remembered days when everything 
could be accounted for, when there was still a unity in Europe, 
and we accepted the love of God and the offices of the Church 



8 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

as matters of course. Only I seemed to be out of the picture. 
And so quietly I slipped away without so much as " Thank 
you " to Fra Lorenzo, to whom I owed this consoling glimpse 
of life in Tuscany. 

It was late in the afternoon when I cUmbed into the upper 
town, the real Castel-Fiorentino, and found the CoUegiata 
S. Lorenzo, a very old church, partly Lombard, where, over 
the second altar on the right, is a fine Ducciesque Madonna 
and Child, much darkened. The church has, too, some good 
late pictures, but I did not linger, as I wished to see the sunset 
from the Castello. 

I found it when I came to the platform before the pieve of 
S. Biagio, where on the high altar is a fine early Madonna of 
surprising glory and tenderness. 

Looking thence across the world in the most beautiful hour 
of the day, when in that level and golden light God seems still 
to bestow on the earth His benediction, I saw evening come 
from the mountains up Val d' Elsa. To the north the valley 
widened between the hills under Castelnuovo, at whose foot a 
little chapel, as I knew, hid some frescoes by Benozzo Gozzoli. 
To the south the earth towered, breaking at last into the beauty 
that is S. Gimignano delle Belle Torri, where every little hill 
seemed to be crowned with a city shining in the setting sun. 

It is surprising that a place so lovely should never have 
expressed itself, should have produced no one to tell the world, 
in words, colour, or action, in the beauty of his work or the 
strength, sweetness, or perfection of his life, of the loveliness 
of his home. It is true there are the children. Indeed, one 
of them, a lad of twelve or thereabouts, had come up as I 
stood there thinking, and now waited beside me, looking up 
into my face or across the valley to where the sun had hidden 
itself already behind a shoulder of the hills. 

Presently I turned to him, and with a certain churlish 
impatience demanded, " Was there, then, no one born in this 
city who was ever famous ? " 

Now he answered, smiling up at me confidently, " Ma si, 
Signore." 



CASTEL-FIORENTINO 9 

" What ! " said I, " there was ? You tell me there was ? 
And who is this unknown and yet splendid personage who 
stands for Castel-Fiorentino ? Eh ? " 

And he answered, looking down, a little baffled by my 
sharpness, "Signore, Santa Verdiana." 

"Santa Verdiana," said I. "Santa Verdiana? And who 
may she be?" 

" Signore, she is a great Saint, our Saint, the Saint of 
Castel-Fiorentino." 

"Ha ha," said I; "I remember now, boy; you mean the 
little Saint with the two snakes, the protector of the church 
down there ? " 

k- "Si, Signore." 
" Was she of Castel-Fiorentino ? " 

"Si, Signore." 

"Tell me, then." And I settled myself carefully on the 
wall, where I could see the glory of the sky, and prepared to 
listen. 

" Signore, it was very long ago, if the Signore will believe 
me, when that holy one, Santa Verdiana of Castel-Fiorentino, 
had the politeness to be born here in this town for the glory 
of us who live here and the edification of all Val d' Elsa. 
Signore, it was very long ago, but, nevertheless, we shall never 
forget it any more than they of S. Gimignano will forget their 
S. Fina, about whom, as Padre Bonifazio says, there is too 
much talk. Will the Signore hear, then ? " 

I nodded. 

"Signore, when Santa Verdiana was born here in Castel- 
Fiorentino her parents were very poor, yet in spite of this 
misfortune always she was good and holy, and the Saints 
talked with her. And so wise did she grow with hearing this 
talk that if the Signore will understand every one here loved 
her, and a relation of her family who was rich, noble, and very 
powerful, seeing how good she was, made her the padrona of 
his family, and gave his whole house into her keeping. This 
when she was not yet very old. Now, as it happened, Signore 
— ^and the Signore knows such things were common in those 



10 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

days — while she governed the whole house of this rich man 
there was a famine in Val d' Elsa, and no one had enough, or 
even at last anything to eat. Only, as rich men do, being 
both wise and cunning — but cunning, Signore, at least here 
in Castel-Fiorentino — the padrone of S. Verdiana had known 
very well how to guard himself even in this, for he had in his 
house a great chest of beans laid by, and as such things grew 
more and more valuable, when they were worth their weight 
in gold he sold them to a certain merchant of his acquaintance, 
who, as the Signore may believe, having paid for them, was 
not slow in coming to fetch them, Signore, what do you 
think ? Do you think that was a good bargain ? Do you 
think that he filled his empty belly with those beans, and was 
able to sell the rest at a price of blood ? If the Signore 
were to think so, he would be mistaken — but how mistaken ! 
For S. Verdiana, Signore, that little poor one, had long since 
given all those beans away to the poor of Castel-Fiorentino, 
since they were hungry. 

" Well, the Signore may believe me that when the padrone 
found that he had no beans to sell, and above all, when it 
occurred to him that the great price he had received must be 
given back, he was like a devil for rage. Signore, he bubbled 
over, he spat, tore his hair, and indeed behaved himself in a 
fashion unbecoming in one really well educated. But when 
S. Verdiana saw how things were, for a whole night she gave 
herself to prayers ; and behold, in the morning, the chest was as 
full as ever. Such is the power of God, as the Signore knows. 
Then, when she found that her prayers were heard, she called 
the padrone and said, * Leave off being angry ; Ges^ Cristo 
has returned the beans you grudged Him.' And that she 
said because you know, sir, it is written in the Gospel, 
' Forasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these 
My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.' 

*' Now, when the padrone saw this thing and understood, 
you may believe he was astonished — astonished and proud, 
sir, that he should have so great a wonder in his house ; and 
so, altogether reckless in his pride, he went through Castel- 



C ASTEL-FIORENTINO 1 1 

Fiorentlno telling every one of his good fortune, so that, to 
the great dismay and shame of Santa Verdiana, she found 
herself famous — an object, sir, of public veneration. In her 
great shame and fear of this which had befallen her, she 
made up her mind to flee away from Castel-Fiorentino, and 
to go on pilgrimage with some great ladies of this valley to 
S. Giacomo di Campostella, very far off, you know, sir, in the 
great kingdom of Spain. But we would only let her go when 
she promised at last to return as soon as she could. Now, of 
all that happened on that pilgrimage, as Padre Bonifazio says, 
we shall never know — no, sir, nor a half nor a quarter of it. 
But when she returned to this town, sir, we met her in a fine 
procession; and as she wished, we built her a little cell looking 
into the church — it was called S. Antonio then, sir — down there 
in the borgo, sir, now called Santa Verdiana. There, sir, as 
you may suppose, she heard Mass every day; but before the 
cell was finished she went on pilgrimage to Rome ; but of 
what befell on that journey, too, we shall never know anything. 

'* When she returned, she entered the cell we had built, and 
there she lived, sir, for thirty-four years, till she came to die 
there — sleeping in summer on the ground, and in winter on a 
plank with just a block of wood for a pillow. 

" Now, sir, in dealing with Saints you should always expect 
some wonder. So it was with Santa Verdiana. She had been 
in her cell perhaps four years, perhaps five, when, on the 
Feast of S. Antonio Abate, she heard the preacher describe 
what that patriarch of hermits endured from the presence of 
devils — devils, sir, who took the form of wild beasts — as you 
know, sir. So Santa Verdiana prayed that she might share 
the sufferings of that holy one, and it happened as she desired. 
For a few days after two magnificent and stupendous serpents 
came in at her Httle window, and there, sir, they remained for 
the rest of her life, eating out of her bowl, and lashing her 
with their tails when, sir, she had nothing to give them. 
Now, one day the Bishop of Florence, a very great and most 
important personage, came to Castel-Fiorentino especially to 
pay Santa Verdiana a visit, and seeing, as he peeped through 



12 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

the window, the two serpents coiled up beside Santa Verdiana 
there in the cell, he immediately and hastily, without thinking 
twice about it, sir, gave orders that they should be killed. 
But when Santa Verdiana heard it she wept bitterly and 
begged him to allow her to keep them as an exercise of her 
patience. What could he do, sir, but grant her this petition ? 
And, indeed, these two serpents remained with her for thirty 
years, till the people of Castel-Fiorentino killed them, to her 
great sorrow and regret. 

"And not long after a most important thing befell her and 
this town, namely this, that San Francesco of Assisi came here, 
and finding her made her a member of his Third Order. ^ 
And Fra Bonifazio says that that was the best and most 
important event in her life, but I, sir, think the serpent best 
of all — don't you, sir ? Then, sir, she died ^ in the odour of 
sanctity. That is all, sir. Would you like to see her, sir ? " 

I was silent for a time. And then I said, "I think I 
should very much like to see her." 

So he led me a little way further over the hill, till we came 
to a church by the wayside called S. Pietro di Pisangoli, where 
there is a fine picture of the Madonna and Child by some pupil 
of Ghirlandajo. There we found a portrait of S. Verdiana 
in the grey habit of the Third Order of S. Francis with 
S. Jerome. 

It was quite dark when I came back into the city ; all the 
lamps were lighted, and in the streets there was a song. I 
think Castel-Fiorentino has perfectly expressed herself. 

' This was in 1222. » She died in 1242. 



II 

CERTALDO 

LONG before you come to Certaldo on its great hill over 
the narrowing valley of the Elsa, which in fact it holds 
and closes, the Castello shines before you, still very far off, a 
rugged cluster of houses and towers against the sky. When 
at last you find yourself on that great and beautiful road beside 
the river, at the foot of this beautiful hill, it is to discover a 
town very like Castel-Fiorentino in this at least, that the Castello, 
the walled and ancient town, is on the hill and the modern 
borgo in the plain. But, as you soon realise, Certaldo is more 
splendid, more rugged, and more ancient than her sister, 
though, as you see her from the north, you have the worst 
view of her, her true splendour looking southward. 

Most of us who in the modern hurry stay here, perhaps, 
for a few hours on our way to Siena or to Florence, come not 
for any ancient loveliness she may have kept for us, but for 
Boccaccio's sake, for he died here in the ancient house of his 
family still to be seen in the Castello. But in fact Certaldo, 
with her picturesque mediaeval ways, has much curious beauty 
of her own, a few pictures, some narrow and ancient streets, 
certain old houses and towers, the Palazzo Pubblico, the Casa 
di Boccaccio, and a delicious countryside, beside the venerated 
grave of that great and heroic man who has entranced the whole 
world with his stories, who gave Homer back to us, and was the 
first defender of Dante Alighieri, the devoted friend of Petrarch, 
the lover of Fiammetta ; who remained poor his whole life long 
for the sake of learning, and who is indeed the most human 

13 



14 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

and the most modest and heroic spirit of the earliest Renais- 
sance. There is nothing at all to see in the modern-built 
town, the borgo at the foot of the fruitful and beautiful hill on 
which Certaldo stands. In the great empty Piazza before the 
church of S. Andrea, founded on land left to the Augustinians 
of Florence by Jacopo, Boccaccio's half-brother, in accordance 
with his will stands a poor modern statue of Certaldo's greatest 
son and benefactor. It is in the lofty Castello that what 
remains to be seen in Certaldo is to be found. 

If you turn to the left out of the Piazza you presently 
come to a steep way on the right called Costa degli Alberti, 
for Certaldo was one of the possessions of that great house. 
It is by this way you must pass, coming at last to the old and 
beautiful gate of the still walled Castello. 

From the gate the main street mounts steeply on the left, 
past the old towered house of Boccaccio and the ancient 
church of SS. Jacopo and Filippo, to the Palazzo Pubblico, the 
great haggard fortress of the Alberti, carved with coats-of-arms 
and beautiful with a few frescoes. 

Then returning a little on your way you come first, on the 
right, to the church of SS. Jacopo and Filippo, now the parish 
church of Certaldo, belonging to the Augustinians. Here in 
the single nave, on the left, is a large niche, perhaps for an 
altar, in which is a fresco of the Madonna and Child, with 
S. Peter, S. John, and S. Verdiana, by some pupil of Lippo 
Memmi. Our interest in the place, however, is chiefly roused 
by the fact that it once held the tomb of Boccaccio, and still 
preserves a memorial of him — a fine bust high up between 
the first and second altars on the right, with an ancient 
inscription beneath. Here, then, within the shelter of his 
parish church till a little over a hundred years ago Boccaccio 
lay in peace. 

"Boccaccio to his parent earth bequeathed 
His dust — and lies it not her great among, 
With many a sweet and solemn requiem breathed 
O'er him who form'd the Tuscan's siren tongue ; 



CERTALDO 15 

That music in itself, whose sounds are song, 

The poetry of speech ? No— even his tomb 

Uptorn must bear the hyaena bigots' wrong ; 

No more amidst the meaner dead find room. 

Nor claim a passing sigh, because it told for whom ! " 

The outrage which Byron refers to happened in 1783, when 
a new floor was built in SS. Jacopo and Filippo. The 
" hyaena bigots " of Certaldo, finding it disgraceful that the 
author of so many merry tales should rest in holy ground, tore 
up the tomb, scattered the ashes, and flung the stone aside. 
This unfortunate and disgraceful vandalism, exceptional in the 
annals of Italy, who has generally shown a touching devotion 
for the names of her great sons, was happily atoned for, in so 
far as was possible, by the principal person of the district, the 
Contessa Lenzioni, a daughter of the last branch of the house 
of Medici, ever famous for its generosity to and protection of 
artists and men of letters. This great and good lady rescued 
the tombstone of Boccaccio from the neglect in which it lay 
and found for it an honourable place in her own palace. She 
did more : the house in which Boccaccio had lived for many 
years, and in which he came at last to die, was as little 
respected as his tomb. This, too, she purchased, and devoted 
it to his memory. It stands a little lower down than and on 
the same side of the street as the church, and even contains a 
small Boccaccio museum. In a room upstairs, which the 
custode calls the studio of Boccaccio, are gathered a few of 
his relics, such as the stones of his broken tomb, a cabinet for 
MSS. said to have been his, and a curious sand clock. 
Here, too, are a few pictures. The house has a turret which 
commands an extensive view over the surrounding country, 
including as it does Montajone and S. Gimignano. 

Here in the ancient house of his fathers Giovanni Boccaccio 
came to die in 1375. But Certaldo was not his birthplace, as 
has so often been stated ; indeed he lived there, it seems, but 
little till the last years of his life.^ 

^ For a fully documented biographical and critical study of Boccaccio, 
see my " Giovanni Boccaccio " (Lane, 1909). 



i 



i6 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Giovanni Boccaccio was bom in Paris, as he told Petrarch, 
in 13 1 3. He was the son of Boccaccio di Chellino da 
Certaldo, a young Italian banker and money-lender at that 
time in Paris, and a certain Jeanne or Gianna, a French- 
woman about whom we know nothing save that it seems 
certain Boccaccino never married her. Their son, Giovanni, 
was probably brought to Italy when he was still a tiny child — 
at any rate his father was back in Tuscany, and in business in 
Florence, in 13 18, where it seems Giovanni was brought 
up, nel suo grembo^ as he says, in his father's house. Some 
have thought, among them the most learned student of his 
youth, Delia Torre, that the hill on which he tells us his child- 
hood was passed, " a little hill strewn with seashells and dark 
with oaks," was that on which Certaldo stands, and that it was 
here his boyhood was spent. It seems more likely, however, 
that since he tells us he lived in his father's house — nel 
suo grembo, literally, in his lap — that it was rather in Florence, 
where we know his father to have been, than in Certaldo he 
spent his earliest years, and this belief is strengthened by the 
fact that he later devoted a book to the description of the 
country about Florence between Fiesole and Settignano, which 
he greatly loved, while he says nothing of Certaldo, and also 
by the fact that we know his father had a house at Corbignano, 
under Settignano, that is still standing, which came to him 
as part of the dowry of his first wife, Margherita di Gian 
Donato de' Martoli, whom he married almost immediately 
after his return to Tuscany between 13 14 and 13 18, and who, 
if we understand Boccaccio aright, was the cause of the lad's 
sudden departure for Naples when, as we think, he was but 
ten years old. It had been his father's intention to bring 
Giovanni up to be a banker, but his early and passionate 
dislike of business brought this to nothing, and, no doubt 
to the delight of Margherita, his stepmother, whose son, 
Francesco, was then about two years old, old Boccaccio 
presently decided to apprentice Giovanni to a merchant in 
Naples, where, as we suppose, he arrived in December, 1323. 

But if he disliked banking and money-lending, trade, we 



CERTALDO 17 

may be sure, was not more to his mind. He longed to be a 
poet, and the gay life of Naples which he describes so vividly 
for us did not encourage him to stick to his desk. 

His education had been of the most meagre sort, consisting 
of the mere rudiments of Latin and arithmetic. In Naples, 
however, possibly among the sons of the Florentine merchants 
there, he found a certain " Calmeta," who not only roused in 
him the desire for culture, but was able to guide his first steps 
in those conversazioni astronomiche of which he speaks so 
much. With him he pursued his study in Grammar, Dialectic 
and Rhetoric. 

This new companionship was not, however, the only thing 
that helped to strengthen his dislike of business. In 1327 he 
was presented by his father, then on a visit to Naples as the 
representative of the great banking house of the Bardi, at 
the Court, and one thing aiding another, before his father left 
Naples he had told him he could not pursue his career, and 
in fact by 1329 we find him engaged — not much more 
enthusiastically, it must be admitted — in the study of Canon 
Law, for his father seems to have insisted on a fixed pro- 
fession. 

But whatever his duties may have been at this time, neither 
they nor his studies with Calmeta occupied all his time. He 
entered with gusto into the gay life of the gayest city in Italy. 
He speaks often of the beauty of the women in that splendour 
of earth and sky and sea, and the beautiful names of two he 
courted and loved, being in love with love, have come down 
to us, namely, Pampinea and Abrotonia, which we find in the 
^'Filocolo." Like Romeo, Boccaccio had his Rosaline. These 
were not profound passions, of course, but they proved never- 
theless to be an introduction to Love himself. 

On entering Naples Boccaccio tells us he had had a vision 
of a beautiful lady who welcomed him with kisses. This vision 
was confirmed to him one night when, having deserted 
Abrotonia, and having in his turn been betrayed by Pampinea, 
they appeared to him in a dream, laughing at him, when he 
reproached them, and telling him it was in fact for another 
c 



i8 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

lady he had made all the verses dedicated to them. And 
presently in his dream he saw this lady, led in by Abrotonia 
and Pampinea, fairer far than they, and, as in the first vision, 
dressed in green. 

This vision, which seems to have befallen in 1329-30, 
proved to be a prophesy of Fiammetta. This lady, about the 
same age as himself, but already married, was the illegitimate 
daughter of King Robert of Naples and a lady of French birth, 
the wife of the Conte d' Aquino. Boccaccio saw her first on 
Holy Saturday in the church of S. Lorenzo of the Franciscans 
during Mass, and, as we may believe, on 30 March, 1331. He 
had gone to church, it seems, about ten o'clock, the fashionable 
hour of the day, rather to see the people than to attend the 
service, and there amid the throng he first caught sight of the 
woman who was so profoundly to influence his life and shape 
his work. 

Fiammetta was tall and slanciaiay and, as he tells us in. a 
hundred different places, golden -haired and very beautiful. 
He watched her all through the service, and thought of 
nothing else for the rest of the day. Then on the morrow, 
which was Easter Day, he went again to S. Lorenzo in the 
hope of seeing her, and she was there indeed, dressed finely 
in a green dress loaded with pearls. And at once he 
recognized her for the lady of his visions. 

That meeting was the beginning of a new life for Giovanni. 
Yet when he learned that Fiammetta was, though illegitimate, 
a princess, he can have had but slender hopes of winning 
her love. Nevertheless he did not altogether despair, and we 
presently find him in her company telling her stories out of 
the French romances then so popular, and of the Trojans and 
Romans. At her request he seems to have set about com- 
posing a romance for her, which he completed later under the 
name of the " Filocolo." He also wrote her many sonnets, 
hoping to win her, with all the ndiveti of youth, by poetry. 
She allowed him to pay her court, and without giving him 
much encouragement no doubt enjoyed his homage. This 
courtship seems to have lasted some five years before an 



CERTALDO 19 

opportunity occurred which gave Giovanni what he so eagerly 
desired — the full possession of this disdainful beauty. 

This opportunity and the advantage he took of it is so 
characteristic of the time, and so like one of his own stories 
that it must be told in some detail. But first let us assure 
ourselves that he loved her well and truly, if with a more 
human and mundane love than Dante had given Beatrice 
or Petrarch Laura; his was an earthly passion, sensual 
and unscrupulous, subject to the vicissitudes of life from 
which theirs were free. Petrarch had not the heart to 
possess himself of Laura ; just that seems to have been 
the goal of Boccaccio's passion. His opportunity came 
during the absence of Fiammetta's husband in Capua. For 
long he had been her accepted lover, though so far she had 
always denied him the last proof of her love, which he now 
resolved to take by force or stratagem. Screwing his courage 
to the sticking-point, he bribed her maid to let him hide him- 
self in her room. There behind the curtains of the great 
marital bed he watched her undress, and in fear and 
impatience waited till she was asleep. Then, as he tells us, 
trembling and scarce daring to breathe, he crept into the 
great bed beside her, in verity as though he were her newly 
wedded husband. Softly kissing her, sleeping still, and 
drawing aside the curtain that hid the Hght, he discovered 
to his amorous eyes "il delicato petto, e con desiderosa mano 
toccava le ritonde mammelle, baciandola molte volte " — and 
already held her in his arms, when she awoke. 

She opened her mouth to cry for help, he closed it with 
kisses; she strove to get out of bed, but he held her firm, 
bidding her have no fear. She was defeated, of course, but 
that her yielding might not seem too easy she reproached him 
in a trembling voice — trembling with fear and hope — for the 
violence with which he had stolen what she had always denied 
him ; adding that all was quite useless, as she did not wish it. 
Then Giovanni, putting all to the proof, took a dagger 
from his belt, and, retiring to a corner of the bed, in a low 
and distressed voice said — we find the words in the " Ameto " 



20 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

— " I do not come here, O lady, to despoil the chastity of thy 
bed, but as thy lover to cool my ardours, which either I shall 
achieve or I shall kill myself; for assuredly either I shall 
leave you satisfied or I shall die here at your feet. . . ." 

To kill himself — there ? O no, Giovanni ! Certainly she 
did not want that. What, then ? Well, not a dead man in 
her room at any rate for all the world to talk about. . . . 

She was paid in her own coin ; her silence gave consent. 
O no, Giovanni ! 

That night was but the first of a long series we may believe. 
" O how he loved my room ! " says Fiammetta in the book 
which bears her name; "and with what joy it saw him 
arrive. . . ." 

But that year so full of wild joy soon passed away. With 
the dawn of 1338 Giovanni's troubles began : at first jealousy. 
And his fears prophesied truly — he was betrayed. Fiammetta, 
as he knew doubtless, was incapable of any stability in love, 
and he could never help looking at altre donne. He struggled 
against his fate, humiliated himself before her, heaped 
reproaches upon her and scorn, but it was useless ; she was 
surrounded by admirers no more scrupulous than himself, and 
she, too, was in love with love. 

But fate was not content, it seems, with this single blow. 
Till then he had wanted for nothing ; he had had a home of 
his own, and had been able to go to Court as he pleased and 
to enter fully into the gay life of Naples. Now suddenly 
poverty stared him in the face. His father, from whom all 
that was stable and good in his life had proceeded, was ruined, 
and before long, widowed and childless, summoned him home. 

It cannot have been with any great content that Giovanni 
obeyed that call in the early days of 1341, when he was nearly 
twenty-eight years old. It seemed to him, doubtless, that he 
was leaving everything that was worth having in Naples; but as 
it proved it was in Florence he was to find, if not love, at least 
the fulfilment of his ambitions. 

There in the next few years he wrote and completed 
the works of his youth — the " Filocolo/' the " Filostrato," 



If 




^iiti#" 




PALAZZO PRETORIO, CERTALDO 



OF THE 

DIVERSITY 

OF 



CERTALDO 21 

the "Teseide," the "Ameto," the " Amorosa Visione," 
the " Fiammetta," and the " Ninfale Fiesolano," and some- 
what in that sequence. Driven from Florence, it seems, by the 
revolution that disposed of the Duke of Athens, he seems to 
have returned to Naples, perhaps to look for Fiammetta, but 
only to find the city in the uproar that followed the murder of 
Andrew of Hungary, husband of Queen Giovanna. Thence 
he wandered into the Romagna, staying with Ostasio da 
Polenta at Ravenna, where he met Dante's daughter Beatrice, 
and at Forli with Francesco Ordelaffi. He may well have 
been there or in Naples, certainly he was not in Florence, 
when the plague descended upon Italy with such awful con- 
sequences in 1348. In that " black death" Fiammetta seems 
to have perished ; we do not know whether it was Boccaccio 
who closed her eyes. Within the next two years he lost his 
father and his second stepmother, his father's second wife, 
and was left as guardian of his half-brother by this lady, 
Jacopo. 

He returned to Florence in 1350, to find Petrarch there 
on his way to Rome for the Jubilee, and this, his first meeting 
with the most famous man of his time, was to be full of good 
fortune for him. 

In 1349 the Republic of Florence had founded a university, 
really with the intention of attracting strangers to herself, for 
she was half- depopulated by the plague. In 135 1 Boccaccio 
was sent as ambassador to Padua to persuade Petrarch, whose 
father was a Florentine exile, to accept a chair in the university. 
Though he did not succeed in his mission, he cemented his 
friendship with the lover of Laura, and was evidently con- 
sidered by the Republic as a good representative, for we find 
him serving as ambassador to Ludwig of Brandenburg, and 
three years later to Innocent VI in Avignon. About this 
time he finished the greatest of his works, the " Decameron." 
He was about forty years old then, and unmarried. Fiammetta 
was dead, and his relations with women had, it seems, always 
been casual. Yet for Boccaccio, more than for any other man 
of his time, perhaps, love, with its extraordinary bracing of the 



22 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

intellect as well as of the body, was, in some sort, a necessity. 
And it seems that about this time, in his forty-first year, he 
found himself taken by a very beautiful woman, a widow, who 
pretended to encourage him, perhaps because of his fame, 
provoked his advances, allowed him to write to her, and then, 
laughing at this middle-aged and obese lover, gave his letters to 
her young lover, who scattered them about Florence. In his 
exasperation he wrote the book called "II Corbaccio," the most 
cynical of his works, little more, in fact, than a passionate 
attack on woman. His " troubled spirit," as Petrarch wrote 
him, had declared himself. 

In the spring of 1359 he went to Milan to meet Petrarch, 
and while there probably met Leon Pilatus, the Calabrian 
who passed for a Greek. This charlatan and rogue he invited 
to Florence, in the hope of learning Greek from him. For 
two years he gave him hospitality, and succeeded, with his 
assistance, in producing a Latin version of the Iliad and 
Odyssey, which Petrarch was glad to borrow, and which, in 
fact, gave Homer back to the world. 

During this labour a moral crisis, long threatened, of which 
the " Corbaccio " was a sign, overwhelmed him ; in his fiftieth 
year he began to regret the irresponsibility of his past life. 
On the threshold of old age, poor and alone, he thought to 
love God with the same enthusiasm with which he had loved 
woman. He was not capable of it ; his whole life rose up to 
deny him this impassioned consolation. 

It was in the midst of this disease that a certain Gioacchino 
Ciani called upon him to warn him, as he intended to warn 
Petrarch, of the nearness of death. In doing this the monk — 
for he was a Carthusian — was but obeying the dying command 
of Beato Pietro Pietroni, a Sienese, who had seen on his death- 
bed " the present, the past, and the future." 

Already drawn towards a new life — a life which under the 
direction of the Church he was told would be without the con- 
solations of literature — at the sudden intervention, as it seemed, 
of Heaven, Boccaccio did the wisest thing of his whole life — he 
asked for the advice of Petrarch. The letter which Petrarch 



CERTALDO 23 

wrote him takes its rank among the noblest of his works, and 
is indeed one of the most beautiful letters ever written. 
"You tell me," he says, "that this holy man had a vision of 
our Lord, and so was able to discern all truth — a great sight 
for mortal eyes to see. Great indeed, I agree with you, if 
genuine ; but how often have we not known this tale of a vision 
made a cloak for an imposture ! And having visited you this 
messenger proposed, I understand, to go to Naples, thence 
to Gaul and Britain, and so to me. Well, when he comes 
I will examine him closely; his looks, his demeanour, his 
behaviour under questioning, and so forth, shall help me to 
judge of his truthfulness. And the holy man on his death-bed 
saw us two and a few others to whom he had a secret message, 
which he charged this visitor of yours to give us; so, if I 
understand you rightly, runs the story. Well, the message to 
you is twofold : you have not long to live, and you must give 
up poetry. Hence your trouble, which I made my own while 
reading your letter, but which I put away from me on thinking 
it over, as you will do also. For if you will only give heed to 
me, or rather to your own natural good sense, you will see 
that you have been distressing yourself about a thing that 
should have pleased you. Now if this message is really from 
the Lord it must be pure truth. But is it from the Lord ? or 
has its real author used the Lord's name to give weight to his 
own saying ? . . . What is there new in all this ? You knew, 
without his telling you, that you could not have a long space of 
life before you. . . . Forsake the Muses, says he. . . . Nay, 
I answer, when he bids you pluck sin from your heart he 
speaks well and prudently ; but why forsake learning, in which 
you are no novice, but an expert, able to discern what to 
choose and what to refuse? . . . Though unlettered men have 
attained to holiness, no man was ever debarred from holiness 
by letters. . . . 

" But if, in spite of all this, you persist in your intention, 
and if you must needs throw away not only your learning but 
the poor instruments of it, then I thank you for giving me the 
refusal of your books. I will buy your library if it must be 



24 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

sold, for I would not that the books of so great a man should 
be dispersed abroad and hawked about by unworthy hands. 
I will buy it and unite it with my own ; then some day this 
mood of yours will pass, some day you will come back to your 
old devotion. Then you shall make your home with me ; you 
will find your books side by side with mine, which are equally 
yours. Thenceforth we shall share a common life and a 
common library, and when the survivor of us is dead the 
books shall go to some place where they will be kept together 
and dutifully tended, in perpetual memory of us who owned 
them." 

That noble letter, so sane in its piety, in some sort cured 
Boccaccio. We hear no more of the fanatic monk, and the 
books were never bought by Petrarch, for they were never 
sold. 

Boccaccio's days of creation were, however, over. He 
retired to Certaldo to the house of his ancestors, and there 
read without ceasing the works of antiquity, annotating as he 
read. His learning became prodigious, and little by little 
he gathered his notes into the volumes we know as " De 
Montibus, Sylvis, Lacubus," &c., a kind of dictionary of geo- 
graphy ; the " De Casibus Virorum Illustrium," which deals 
with the vanity of human affairs from Adam to Petrarch ; the 
" De Claris Mulieribus," which begins with Eve and comes 
down to Giovanna of Naples; and the "De Genealogiis 
Deorum Gentilium," a cyclopaedia of learning concerning 
mythology and a defence of poetry and poets. 

In addition to all his other reading Boccaccio had never 
ceased to study the "Divine Comedy," nor did he till his 
death. In 1365, however, and again in 1368, he went as 
Ambassador of Florence to the Pope in Avignon and in 
Rome, and apparently about this time, too, he published his 
Life of Dante. In 1367, leaving Certaldo in March, he went 
to Venice, where he had a joyful welcome from the daughter 
of Petrarch and her husband, but he did not again meet 
Petrarch himself. In 1370 he was once more in Naples, and 
in 1373 he was called from his retirement in Certaldo to 



CERTALDO 25 

lecture publicly on the " Divine Comedy " in Florence. He 
began to read on 23 October, 1373, in the church of S. Stefano 
alia Badia, and continued on each succeeding day that 
was not a festival. He had got so far as the sixtieth lezione^ 
when he was taken ill and had to cease. This was no sudden 
disease; he had never really recovered from his "conversion." 
Really ill, he retired to Certaldo, where, utterly miserable and 
suffering much from his disease, but more from the ignorance 
of doctors, he groped about far from Petrarch, looking for 
some certainty. He had thought he might find it in the 
monastic life, and it was in a solitude almost as profound 
that he came to die at last on this hill in Val d' Elsa in the 
house of his ancestors — a magician, as was said, like Virgil 
or Ovid to the folk of Naples and Sulmona, knowing all the 
secrets of nature. He must often have passed slowly, because 
of failing health, up and down the picturesque streets of the 
old town which holds as many sudden peeps as Assisi ; and 
at sunset, perhaps, he lingered by the gates as we do, for they 
are wonderfully placed for beauty. From his room he looked 
over a world as fair as any in Tuscany — a land of hills about 
a quiet valley where the olives are tossed to silver in the 
wind and the grapes are kissed by the sun into gold and 
purple, where the corn whispers between the vines ; till for 
him, too, at last the grasshopper became a burden. 

There, on 21 December, 1375, he died, and was buried, 
as he had desired, above the quiet waters of the Elsa which 
puts all to sleep. In passing through the old streets of Certaldo 
to-day, it is part of our heritage to remember him. 



Ill 

S. GIMIGNANO 

CERTALDO, for all its narrow, winding ways and smiling 
country, holds little to-day that we can be sure Boccaccio 
saw. If we would know what a Tuscan hill town was like in 
the fourteenth century, we must go on foot or by carriage to 
S. Gimignano delle belle Torri, on the hills on the other side 
of the Elsa. There, it is true, we shall find no remembrance 
of Boccaccio, but we shall be treading in the footsteps of 
Dante, and we shall find there, too, the memory of one of 
those little saints who once made sweet our world, but who, 
alas ! come no more down the long valleys at evening, singing 
of the love of God. Nevertheless there are few refuges in all 
Tuscany more secure from the rampant and sentimental 
materialism of our time than S. Gimignano. 

To reach this wonder, to behold this banner of a lost cause, 
still valiant upon the hills, that is a good way which leaves 
Certaldo by crossing the river, and so climbs over the hills till 
the city " of the beautiful towers " rises before you like a 
vision, and you come at last, as to a forgotten shrine, into her 
quiet and shadowy gates. That is a good way, but it is not 
the only one, or even the most frequented. For those who 
seek her out from Siena will approach her from Poggibonsi, 
whence it is a drive of some seven chilometri at a cost of six 
lire to this strangely towered city, so gaunt upon the hills, 
above the olives and the vines. 

The road from Certaldo, which was the way I took, is as 

lovely as any in the world. You climb hill after hill between 

26 



OF THE 

OF 



S. GIMIGNANO 27 

the olives and the vines, where the grain and the grapes grow 
together. Often you descend into delicious valleys where the 
vineyards are still with summer, and the silence is only broken 
by the far-away voice of some peasant singing stornelli; often, 
too, you look back on Val d' Elsa, where Certaldo smiles on 
its steep hill over the river, till suddenly at a turning of the 
way S. Gimignano rises before you on a lonely hill-top, 
covered with the silver of the olives, the gold of the corn, the 
green mantle of the vines, like a city out of a missal, crowned 
with her trophy of thirteen towers. Over all that gay land- 
scape, that quiet country-side, she alone still hovers like a 
sombre thought of the Middle Age ; it is as though on that 
gay road some terrible verse of Dante had come to you sud- 
denly on the wind, in the sunshine, at a turning of the way, 
and had changed the whole world for you in an instant. 

Yet it is not anything too sombre or even too grave that 
fills your heart as you enter her gates, those gates that she 
threatens to destroy; — yes, for your sake, lest your motor-car 
should be compelled to wait drearily without and you yourself 
pass through her streets on foot. If Dante has trodden her 
ways she has surely forgotten it, and one is not surprised that 
the inscription in the Palazzo Pubblico, by which she has 
thought to remind herself of the honour, records the wrong 
date. For in spite of old age, in spite of poverty, in spite of 
the modern world that she seeks, with too much condescension, 
one thinks, to placate, S. Gimignano is a joyful city ; a city of 
old, gaunt towers, it is true, but also a city of singing voices, 
which, as it seems to me, these towers hear gladlyj they do 
not frown, but rejoice in the sun. For, ancient as she is, she 
who has seen the armies of Charlemagne and the end of the 
Empire, in whose ears the stories of Boccaccio followed fast 
on the anathemas of Dante, can afford to greet you even to-day 
with a smile, it may be of welcome, it may be of tolerance. 

She is very old. More than a thousand years, according to 
Luigi Pecori, her historian, have passed since she was founded 
in honour of S. Geminianus. Certainly so early as the 
eighth century there was a town here, crouched under a 



28 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

fortress castle, surrounded by the woods which gave her her 
second name, Castello di S. Gimignano, Castello della Selva. 
From that time, as we may suppose, and certainly in the 
tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, she was subject to the 
Bishop of Volterra, till in 1199 we find her electing as Podest^ 
Maghinardo Malavolti of Siena, no doubt to stand for her 
against the Bishop. For, as before, the rettori of the Bishop 
of Volterra had administered justice within her gates, so after 
1 199 the Podesta ruled the courts and presided at the meetings 
of her Council and led her armies in battle. 

For all the cities of Tuscany the thirteenth century was a 
century of war, nor was S. Gimignano an exception. Her 
position demanded it. Between Florence and Siena, she 
could not keep her independence and be at peace. When 
she had won her freedom from Volterra and forced the Sig- 
norotti of her contado to enter her gates, there were always 
these to watch and ward. Nor did she escape the horror of 
faction and civil war any more than her neighbours. Ghibel- 
line as she was in the time of Frederic II, there were Guelfs 
within her walls who only awaited an opportunity to seize the 
city. Their chance seemed to have come in 1246, when, 
finding the taxes on the churches a good excuse, they rose, 
led by Guido Ardinghelli, and destroyed the towers of the 
chief Ghibelline families, whose champions were the Salvucci. 
It was the feud between these two houses that at last brought 
S. Gimignano into captivity. All through the thirteenth cen- 
tury the city ran with the blood of the factions, and yet amid 
the uproar little S. Fina passed by, thinking only of the love 
of God. 

But S. Gimignano was torn asunder. Now Guelf, now 
Ghibelline, she suffered everything and gained nothing from 
any one. In 1260 at Montaperti she was Guelf, and shared 
the defeat and rout of the Florentines. In 1269 she was 
Ghibelline, and went down with the Sienese before the 
Florentines at Colle. Thenceforth she followed the Guelf 
cause, in 1270 helping the Florentines to destroy the Rocca 
of Poggibonsi, still obstinately Ghibelline. There followed a 



I 



S. GIMIGNANO 29 

peace, or sort of peace at least, of thirty years, from 1270 to 
1300. 

It was then, on a May morning in the year 1300, that an 
embassy from the allied cities of the Guelf League came up 
the long roads to S. Gimignano, and when the gates were 
opened Dante Alighieri, just thirty-five years old, rode into 
the town with his company, with trumpeters gay with silver 
and gold, and heralds all in scarlet and silver. In the great 
hall of the new Palazzo del Comune he gave his message to 
the ancients of S. Gimignano ; to wit, that a council was called 
of the League to elect a captain of Tuscany, and that S. 
Gimignano was invited to send deputies. 

That herald announced, too, the fourteenth century. The 
GhibelUnes were no more, in name at least. There remained 
the broken Guelf party, irremediably split into Bianchi and 
Neri. Again S. Gimignano followed Florence ; she was 
Black, and went to the siege of Pistoia in 1305. She returned 
to look to her own aifairs. In 1308 war broke out between 
herself and Volterra, and the whole country was laid waste, 
till the League, or at least Florence, Siena, and Lucca, inter- 
vened. She followed Florence and the League against 
Henry VII, who, being at Poggibonsi, still ineffectually 
Ghibelline, threatened to fling down her towers and walls, 
and actually burnt the contado. Then, in 13 13, Henry died at 
Buonconvento. 

It might seem that with the Ghibelline cause in utter ruin 
S. Gimignano would have been at peace. It was, however, in 
the years following 1315, when Uguccione broke the Florentines 
at Montecatini, that she began to make an end of herself. 
Folgore, her poet, that terrible Guelf, was, after all, but ex- 
pressing the mood of his time when he refused to acknowledge 
God while the GhibelUnes triumphed. It is written that " a 
house divided against itself cannot stand." It was so with 
S. Gimignano, it was so with Italy. As in Florence, so in this 
little mountain city the trouble began with an attempt at 
tyranny. Trebaldo Baroncetti, one of the Guelf leaders, tried 
to make himself lord. It is true he was disposed of, but the 



30 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

factions would not be at peace. In 1332 the exiles, under the 
Ardinghelli, ravaged and burnt the contado^ till the people of 
S. Gimignano rased Camporbiano, in the Florentine territory, 
which had sheltered them. Florence demanded an explana- 
tion, and when this was not forthcoming she fitted out an 
expedition and imposed a fine on the Commune. Then 
S. Gimignano asked for mercy. This was the beginning of 
the end. Where Florence had once had obedience she never 
brooked independence again. It was the Duke of Athens 
who first enslaved her, but she tore down his castle when 
Florence spued him out. But she was ever at the mercy of 
her own factions, without whom the Ardinghelli, who would 
not give up hope of possessing her, would have been helpless. 
The end came with the plague in 1348. In debt to Florence, 
half depopulated, but still quarrelling, in 1349 she gave the 
government into the hands of Florence for three years. Even 
this did not sober her. In 1352 the Ardinghelli and the 
Salvucci set the whole city in uproar, and a year later Florence 
finally and for ever took over the government. Thus died the 
Commune of S. Gimignano, because she would not be at peace. 
It is wonderful to remember that to-day, in the silence of the 
Piazza del Duomo or on the broken ramparts of the deserted 
walls. This at least one is tempted to claim, this at least we have 
won from time, in this at least to-day is better than yesterday 
— we have attained to peace. Yes, it is true here in Italy they 
have attained to peace, but in such a place as S. Gimignano it 
is the peace of death. Is it very much else, I wonder, in Siena, in 
Assisi, in Pisa, even in Florence, which once boasted so loud 
and would have destroyed one another, but at the same time 
formed our Europe, conserved our Faith, created our civilization, 
and gave us nearly all that is worth having in the world ? Are 
there any better painters in the world than those of Florence 
and Siena? Are there any better poems than the "Divine 
Comedy," or better stories than those in the " Decameron " ? 
And if you ask for men and women whom shall we place 
beside S. Francis of Assisi, S. Catherine of Siena ? Some 
wonder is gone out of the world. To-day all Europe is at 



S. GIMIGNANO 31 

peace, but we can do nothing to compare with what these 
four little cities did in the intervals of trying to annihilate one 
another. Why ? Some wonder is gone out of the world. Is 
it, can it be, our Faith ? 

That question occurs very often to the traveller as he passes 
through almost every city in Tuscany; it is insistent in 
Florence, in Siena, in Pisa, nor is it likely to be dumb even in 
S. Gimignano. This little valiant town, so lonely on the hills, 
was once the centre of a vigorous life, civil and religious, even 
intellectual and artistic. It produced and employed painters ; 
a poet was born here, little S. Fina stood for it among the 
blessed in heaven. Now the place is less than nothing, a 
curiosity for strangers; it has no life of its own, and is in- 
capable of producing anything but a few labourers for the 
fields. As you pass through its narrow ways and look on the 
monuments of the Middle Age and the Renaissance, you find 
everything deserted and a cruel poverty the only tyrant left. 
Some virtue is gone out of it. Why? 

By whatever gate you may enter the city you will scarcely 
pause on your way through these silent streets full of shadows 
till you come into the Piazza del Podesta, where on a great 
platform, reached by a noble flight of steps, the CoUegiata 
stands with the Palazzo del Comune beside it, and the ancient 
Palazzo del Podesta, and the Chigi and Rognosa towers 
opposite to it closing the square. The whole place is deserted. 
A few beggars, a lounger here and there, an old woman spin- 
ning at a door, a few children playing on the steps — these and 
the sun are all that life has left the Piazza of S. Gimignano 
which Dante trod as ambassador for the Florentine Republic. 
Only the past seems to remain here, magically embalmed for 
once by the indifference of men. 

You enter the Palazzo del Comune beside the CoUegiata. 
It is full of silence, your voice echoes in the narrow corridors, 
but no one answers. You come into the beautiful courtyard 
with its loggia and staircase : no one is there ; and it is only 
after climbing that stairway and passing through many cor- 
ridors that, quite by chance it seems, you find the ancient 



32 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

guardian of the place, who, with a sort of incredulous eager- 
ness, leads you through those silent chambers that seem never 
to have heard the voices of to-day. 

Your guide leads you first into the Sala Dante, still used, 
you gather, by the Council of S. Gimignano, but nothing 
modern, you feel sure, could ever be at home there under the 
majestic and beautiful fresco of Lippo Memmi, and that still 
older frieze representing a hunt, divided by coats-of-arms, that 
surrounds the chamber on three sides. 

That fresco of Memmi's, the Madonna and Child en- 
throned, surrounded by angels and saints, S. Antony Abbot, 
S. Fina, S. Gimignano, S. Agatha, S. John Baptist, S. Peter, 
S. Francis, and S. Nicholas, was the gift of Nello Tolomei, 
who kneels there before the Blessed Virgin. It was finished, 
as an inscription records, in 131 7, but is no longer, as another 
inscription tells us, wholly Memmi's work, for in 1467 Benozzo 
Gozzoli restored it. This loveliness, perhaps the finest thing 
in S. Gimignano, though it be full of beauties, Dante never 
saw, for he was here, as we have seen, in the year 1300, 
seventeen years before Nello Tolomei, the Podest^, set Lippo 
Memmi to work. Dante's eyes have, however, looked upon 
the frieze painted in 1292, which, besides scenes of hunting 
and jousts, shows us Scolaio Ardinghelli settling a dispute 
between the Comm.une and the Church, which befell in 1290, 
when, on account of some taxes, the Bishop of Volterra 
placed the town under an interdict, and the people broke 
down the church door and forced a priest to say Mass whether 
he would or no. Nicholas IV appointed Bishop Scolaio 
Ardinghelli, it seems, to settle the quarrel, and he ordered this 
frieze from some Pisan painter, to celebrate the peace. 

From the Sala di Dante your guide leads you upstairs into 
a set of rooms now devoted to the Pinacoteca, where among 
many ancient and some beautiful things are a Polyptych of 
the Blessed Virgin with Saints, and a picture of S. Gimignano 
with scenes from his life by Taddeo di BartoU ; a Madonna in 
Glory, painted in 1 5 1 2 by Pintoricchio ; two small panels with 
four scenes from the life of S. Fina, the golden-haired Saint of 



S. GIMIGNANO 33 

S. Gimignano, by Lorenzo di Niccolb, and two tondi^ repre- 
senting the Annunciation, by Filippino Lippi. Here, too, 
are two Madonnas {tondi) by Mainardi, and a Madonna 
between two kneeling saints, painted in 1477 by Pier 
Francesco Fiorentino. 

From the Palazzo del Comune to the Collegiata, which 
heard the harsh voice of Savonarola when Florence was 
happily still deaf to him, is but a step, and you pass from one 
silence to another. This rather sombre but beautiful church 
is a building of the eleventh century that the fourteenth 
century has modified and restored, and to which the fifteenth 
century, by the hand of Giuliano da Maiano, has added a choir 
and two chapels. The naves are the oldest part of the church, 
the walls being completely covered with Sienese frescoes of 
the fourteenth century, as so many churches must have been 
up and down Italy, yet this remains almost alone to tell us 
of what we have lost. On the left wall are the Old Testament 
scenes in three tiers, painted by Bartolo di Fredi in 1356; on 
the right are scenes from the New Testament, begun in 1380 
by Barna of Siena, and finished by his pupil, Giovanni da 
Asciano. They win us by their simplicity, their quite naive 
power of story-telling, and their charm of colour. Here was 
the Bible of the unlettered contadini and the townsmen of 
mediaeval S. Gimignano; and about the west window the whole 
of the religious life is summed up, as it were, in Taddeo di 
Bartoli's Last Judgment, painted in 1393. This Faith, so 
simply rendered into pictures on the walls of the pieve^ was, 
after all, the corner-stone of S. Gimignano in the days of S. Fina. 

Beneath the fresco of the Last Judgment Benozzo Gozzoli 
in 1466 painted the Martyrdom of S. Sebastian, with our Lord 
and the Madonna appearing to him in the heavens. That 
fresco in some sort commemorates the plague of 1348, for 
an altar was at that time erected here to SS. Sebastian and 
Fabian, but more particularly the later pestilence of 1464, 
when the theologian of S. Gimignano, Domenico Strambi, 
an Augustinian, caused Benozzo to paint this picture, with its 
decorations, about those two fourteenth-century statues of 



34 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

wood, excellent Sienese work, of the Blessed Virgin and 
S. Gabriel Archangel. 

It is not here, however, but at the eastern end of the right 
aisle that we shall find the true shrine of S. Gimignano — the 
shrine of S. Fina. The chapel where the little saint lies is 
one of those added to the church by Giuliano da Maiano in 
the fifteenth century, one of the most charming works of the 
Renaissance. The shrine itself, the altar, and the reliefs, 
however, are the work of Giuliano's brother, Benedetto. They 
were finished in 1475. Above the altar, in a mandorla of 
cherubim attended by two angels, the Madonna sits en- 
throned with her little Son. Beneath, in the beautiful reredos, 
are reliefs of scenes in the life of S. Fina — her vision of 
S. Gregory, her death, and her appearance to an old woman. 
On either side of the tabernacle are two angels in niches, 
while two splendid winged angels kneel in prayer Upon the 
sarcophagus itself, splendidly carved, with naked Loves, we 
read : — 

**Virginis ossa latent tumulo quern suspicis, hospes 
Haec decus, exemplum, praesidiumque suis. 
Noinen Fina fuit ; patria haec ; miracula quaeris ? 
Perlege quae paries vivaque signa decent." 

Who was this S. Fina who was " the example, the guardian of 
her fellow-citizens," whose country was S. Gimignano, and 
whose miracles are set forth " on the wall and in the lifelike 
statues " ? 

Fina de' Ciardi was born in 1238 of a poor yet noble family 
of S. Gimignano. Till she was ten years old she was the 
delight of her father's house, bright as a ray of spring sunshine 
in the dark rooms there, beautiful as a flower fallen from 
the gardens of Paradise, happy as a little singing-bird at 
morning. But in 1248 she fell ill, one of the most dreadful 
diseases of the Middle Age attacked her, and, thinking she 
was the innocent victim of God's anger on that tremendous 
century, she chose to lie on a plank of hard oak, refused a 
bed, and for five years offered herself to God in expiation of 



S. GIMIGNANO 35 

sins she could not name. Fearfully tormented by the devil, 
who appeared to her in his old form of a serpent, eight 
days before her death she was comforted by a vision of 
S. Gregory, who promised that on his feast day, 12 March, 
1253, she should join him in Paradise. And it happened as 
he said. But when they would have buried her they found 
her body so terribly mangled by disease that already the 
worms devoured it ; and when they would have lifted her 
from her plank they found that her flesh adhered to it, and 
that indeed her body had died before her soul had taken its 
departure. Scarcely had she gone, when the devils, fearing 
doubtless her advocacy in heaven, "filled the air with whirl- 
winds ; but against them, moved by angel hands, the bells of 
S. Gimignano rang out in sweet confidence, so that the whirl- 
winds were calmed and the storm stilled. And when the 
people came to the house of S. Fina they found it full of the 
most sweet fragrance as of Paradise itself, and lo, the room 
where the holy body lay was filled with flowers " j and marvel- 
ling at this, they presently went their way. 

They went their way, but they did not forget, and two hun- 
dred years later they built this shrine by the hands of Giuliano 
and Benedetto da Maiano, and in 1477 employed Domenico 
Ghirlandajo, the Florentine, and his pupil Mainardi to paint 
on either side the chapel a great panel of her life, with saints 
and prophets between. There on the right we see her await- 
ing death, when S. Gregory appeared to her promising her 
Paradise ; on the left we see her funeral, when, incapable of 
not doing good, she touched the hand of her old nurse, sick 
herself, and instantly she was whole. Without the angels ring 
the bells of S. Gimignano. S. Fina's body was brought to 
this chapel in October, 1488, when it was consecrated : that 
was after Ghirlandajo had finished his work, and the place 
was sweet and beautiful for her. 

From the chapel of S. Fina we enter the choir, where hangs 
a splendid picture, by Pietro Pollaiuolo, of the Coronation of 
the Blessed Virgin, signed and dated 1483, one of the most 
splendid works of this rare master. Beside it hangs a charm- 



36 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

ing but over-sweet picture of the Madonna and Child with 
angels and saints, by Benozzo Gozzoli, painted in 1466. And 
not far away is one of the better works of Tamagni — a 
Madonna and Child. 

In the sacristy close by is a fine bust of Onofrio di Pietro, 
master of the works when Giuliano da Maiano built S. Fina's 
shrine. The ciborium of marble is from the hand of 
Benedetto. Here, too, is a Madonna and Child with saints, 
by Mainardi, the pupil of Ghirlandajo. 

The baptistery opens out of the left aisle. Here is a fine 
fresco of the Annunciation by Mainardi, and an ancient font 
of Sienese work, made indeed by Giovanni Cecchi in 1379, at 
the expense of the Arte della Lana, whose arms it bears. 

Leaving the old church at last with its fading frescoes and 
half-forsaken shrine, we pass on through the streets, scarcely 
less quiet and scarcely less ancient. Tower after tower comes 
into view over the roofs, and hides itself again ; palace after 
palace, that is called indifferently of the Salvucci, of the 
Ardinghelli. In the Piazza della Cisterna, for all its new 
name of Victor Emmanuel, the grass is growing ; the Torre 
Cinatti is crowned with wild flowers ; now and then, as down 
the Vicolo de' Becci, far-away views of the world, the sweet 
hill country of Tuscany, recall one for a moment from the 
strangely silent streets. 

But wherever one wanders in S. Gimignano one always 
returns to the Piazza. One leaves it at last by the Via di 
S. Matteo intent on seeing the church of S. Agostino. Just 
before the gate one turns into a narrow street on the right that 
presently brings one to the church. Built in the end of the 
thirteenth century, S. Agostino is yet full of works of the 
fifteenth. At the west end is the Uttle chapel of S. Bartolo, 
a saint who gave his life for others, and they lepers, at Cellole 
in the year 1300. His marble shrine, the lovely work of 
Benedetto da Maiano, is of the end of the fifteenth century. 
Above are the three theological virtues, they tell you — three 
panels representing the good works of the saint, and an 
exquisite relief of the Madonna and Child. All is enclosed 



S. GIMIGNANO 37 

in a marble arch carved with arabesques. The three saints on 
the wall and the doctors on the ceiling are works of Mainardi. 

Close by on the south wall of the nave is a lovely fresco 
of the Madonna and Child with saints, one of the best 
works of Pier Francesco Fiorentino. Above is a Pieta by 
Tamagni. We find Tamagni's work again over the next altar, 
where is a fresco of the Madonna and Child with angels, 
and SS. Nicholas, Roch, Paul the Hermit, and Anthony 
Abbot ; and again, over the first altar on the north wall of the 
nave, where there is a cross beneath which kneels S. Chiara 
of Montefalco. Close by is a very fine fresco by Benozzo 
Gozzoli of S. Gimignano protecting the town against the 
plague. It is to see Benozzo Gozzoli's work in the choir that 
we are come to S. Agostino, but as we pass to it we may 
notice the fresco by Mainardi, at the end of this north wall, 
of S. Gimignano blessing the magistrates of the town. Under 
that fresco lies Domenico Strambi, the Augustinian to whom 
S. Gimignano owes so many of her treasures, for he was the 
patron of the Maiani and Pollaiuolo and Ghirlandajo, and it 
is to him we owe these frescoes of Benozzo also. 

Begun in 1463 and finished in 1465, these paintings which 
fill the choir with their radiance are the worthy companions of 
those Benozzo painted at Montefalco which tell so sweetly 
the life of S. Francis. Here in S. Agostino it is the life of 
S. Augustine we see. On the left we find him leaving home 
for school, where later we see him punished. Then at the age 
of nineteen he enters the University of Carthage, where, as he 
himself has told us, he went too much in the way of the world 
till he found himself praying that so human prayer, " O God, 
make me chaste — but not yet." But from afar his mother 
remembered him, and was daily besieging Heaven on his 
behalf, so that at last he sets out across the sea for Italy, taught 
philosophy in Rome, and at length came to Milan, where 
S. Ambrose receives him. Him he hears, while S. Monica 
also recounts all her fears to the great archbishop. To Augus- 
tine, reading in a fair garden, comes S. Ambrose, and hearing 
him, Augustine is baptized ; and there we find the first words 



38 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

of the Te Deum Laudamus, that marvellous hymn of praise 
that S. Ambrose and he are said then to have composed in 
antiphon. Later he teaches, and in a vision sees a child 
pouring the sea into a hole. There follows S. Monica's death. 
Above in the lunettes we find his ordination, his refutation 
of the heretics and vision of S. Jerome, his death and entry 
into Paradise. 

Above in the vault are the four Evangelists, on the choir 
arch figures of saints — S. Gimignano, S. Bartolo, S. Nicholas, 
and S. Nicholas of Tolentino, S. Catherine of Siena, S. Fina, 
S. Sebastian, and Tobit; and beneath these again are S. 
Bartolo washing the lepers' feet, an apparition of S. Nicholas 
of Tolentino, the martyrdom of S. Sebastian, and Tobit and 
the archangel. 

These beautiful works, fading so surely on the walls of that 
old church, might well stand as symbols of S. Gimignano itself 
— it too is passing away, it too is a tale that is told. What, 
after all, have you to do with S. Augustine or S. Gimignano ? 
This morning you left Florence maybe in a motor-car, this 
evening with many a friendly bellow you will sweep into Siena, 
and S. Gimignano will be to you just so much as a printed 
leaf in one of her own missals, just so much — a vision without 
reality. This must be the agony of the tourist, that he cannot 
realize anything that he sees. But fortunately some of us 
— and though we be few none the worse for that — having 
once seen S. Gimignano, will never forget her again. It is not 
what she possesses — her pictures and frescoes, and churches 
and towers — that calls us, though we love that well enough : it 
is herself we need. She is poor, and her ways are quiet : how 
hospitable is her inn! She has the inevitable humility of 
those who have given up the struggle for pre-eminence, the 
inevitable grace of all those who have learned how to wait in 
meditation. Indeed, I have not told one-half of her sweet- 
ness, nor numbered the half of her treasures, nor told of her 
country byways, nor altogether understood why I love her 
so. Yet this I know : she has nothing to do with machinery 
or the getting of wealth. Come and see. 



IV 

VOLTERRA 

THE road for Volterra — for it was thither I was bound 
one fine October morning at dawn — descends from 
S. Gimignano into the valley, and climbing again through that 
quiet and delicate country that marks all the Val d' Elsa, joins 
the high road from Colle at Castel S. Gimignano — a village 
that is scarcely more than a ruined fortress. Thence the 
way lies over vast and barren watersheds, across an uplifted 
wilderness of sterile clay hills, past blue-grey chasms of 
volcanic tufa^ till at evening " lordly Volaterrae " rears itself 
up suddenly against the sky, haggard with loneliness and age 
like the dreadful spirit of this strange country so full of a 
sinister desolation. No traveller can, I think, approach this 
outraged stronghold of old time without a certain hesitation, 
a certain apprehension and anxiety. The way is difficult, 
precipitous, and threatening, full of dangers that cannot be 
named or realized ; and long ere you climb the last great hill 
into the city an eerie dread has seized your heart. As far as 
the eye can reach that barren and tortured world rolls away in 
billow after billow of grey earth scantily covered with a thin 
dead herbage that seems to have been burned with fire. On 
either side the way vast cliffs rise over immense crevasses 
seamed and tortured into the shapes of raped and ruined 
cities : yonder a dreadful tower set with broken turrets 
totters on the edge of sheer nothing; here a tremendous 
gate leads into darkness, there a breached wall yawns over 
an abyss. If there be such a thing as traveller's fear, it is 

39 



40 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

here you will meet it, it is here it will make your heart a 
prize. As for me, I was horribly afraid, nor would any prayer 
I knew bring my soul back into my keeping. 

And if the way is so full of fear, what of that lofty city 
that stands at the high summit of this narrow road winding 
between the precipices ? It too is a city of dread — a city of 
bitterness, outraged and very old. Seven hundred years 
before the fall of Troy it had already suffered siege. Sur- 
rounded in those days by walls 40 feet high, 12 feet thick, 
and 8,000 yards in circumference, that have worn out three 
civilizations, and still in part remain, Volterra was one of the 
greater cities of the Etruscan League. Like vast fortresses 
her gates were held impregnable. Enemy after enemy, army 
after army broke against those tremendous bastions ; she 
scattered them, and they were lost in the desolation in which 
she is still entrenched. From the lower valley of the Arno 
to the forgotten citadel of "sea-girt Populonia," which the 
Maremma has destroyed, she reigned supreme. She 
threatened Tarquinius Priscus, king of Rome ; to her Scipio 
Africanus turned in his need when he would have broken 
Carthage in 205 B.C., and she lent him sea-power, for she held 
the ports of the north, Luna and Pisa, as well as Populonia at 
the doors of Latium. Her sovereignty stretches over more 
than two thousand years, nor is there any record of her 
subjugation till Sulla, after a siege of two years, held her at 
the mercy of the City. Who knows what were her thoughts 
when that Rome whose birth she had seen, whose power she 
had known how to resist for so many ages, fell at last into the 
darkness ? That her lordship grew in the time of the Lom- 
bards, that in the 450 years of the refounded Empire she 
still lived, though as its fief, her records prove. Then at the 
end of the Middle Age, as old as her own bitter hills, she rose 
again on the verge of the new-made desert, desolate but free. 
It was her last brief resurrection. Little by little life forsook 
her, never to return. Nature had tired her out. Above the 
silent Maremma, full of miasma and death, that had already 
swallowed up Populonia and many another city populous and 



VOLTEKRA 41 

strong, Volterra withered away. It was into a dead city that 
the Florentines marched when in 1361 they claimed to have 
subdued her. 

The traveller who, forsaking the valley or the sea-coast in 
order to see Volterra, has had patience or perseverance great 
enough to cross the solitude that surrounds her, might, in fact, 
have spared himself his journey: he will not see Volterra; 
what he will see is a vast and gaunt ruin, the mighty debris 
of what was once a city. 

Approaching her, as he must do, through an appalling deso- 
lation, he is in some sort prepared for those incredible ruins 
that await him : a vast wall thousands of years old that 
nothing but time or earthquake could have destroyed, a 
tunnelled gate hke a primeval fortress, like the port of Thebes 
— massive stone set on massive stone without mortar or 
cement — 

" Piled by the hands of giants 
For god-like kings of old." 

Encamped within these ruins he will find the debris of more 
than one later civilization — Roman, Mediaeval, and Renais- 
sance — cheek by jowl with the fugitive and impermanent work 
of to-day. Still enclosed and guarded by the wall of the 
Etruscans, and entered by their gate, the shrunken mediaeval 
city of Volterra waits for him amid the ruins of four different 
ages, like some wild herb hidden in a crevice of the temples 
of Karnak. 

Little by little as one wanders through those silent streets, 
those quiet piazzas where to-day and yesterday have met here 
in the oldest graveyard of all in an unlooked-for reconciliation, 
this at least seems certain, this at last is realized, that all things 
pass away and nothing remaineth. Nothing you might think 
could have overthrown so tremendous a citadel, yet man has 
consumed it, and Rome has passed by here and left so Httle 
that the farthest of her provinces more easily remembers her. 
Nor is it only antiquity that is here in ruin. Be sure time 
has not done with her, and you may see the mediaeval abbey 



42 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

as desolate as the Etruscan wall. For Volterra is set on the 
edge of the mountains ; she clings, and dizzily, to her rock over 
the abyss ; little by little she is slipping, falling, dropping stone 
by stone, church by church, flower by flower, into nothing- 
ness, into that vast desolation that surrounds her. You may 
see it through every arch, it haunts every byway of the town, 
it greets you from Porta Menseri, from Porta S. Francesco, 
from Porta S. Felice, and though Porta di Docciola is hung 
with earth's loveliest garland, and the girls sing there at the 
fountain, it too brings you to the brink, it too stares into open 
nothingness. Death — yes, if you would look upon it and 
know how it lurks behind everything fair, noble, or venerable, 
you have but to walk out of Porta Pisana for a short mile, and 
there, beyond a more ancient gate, you look into the horrible 
depths of the very pit where is hidden all that was once so 
strong. There, down there, Volterra, what is left of Volterra, 
will lie soon, for she is very old, and her earth is weary of the 
burden of her ruins. 

You might think that a visit to such a tragic place in search 
of beauty, in search of works of art, would certainly resolve 
itself into a quiet pottering among the stones ; and that what- 
ever you might bring to light would be, could, in fact, be, 
nothing but the merest fragments. I don't know. What is 
all our "sightseeing" then, our artistic enthusiasm, here in 
Italy at any rate, but a patient search among the ruins for the 
beauties of an alien age ? Indeed, in most places even the 
search is spared us, and we by so much the poorer. At least 
here in Volterra we may go quietly and alone from ruin to 
ruin, from church to church, from piazza to piazza, without too 
vulgar or noisy a curiosity. There is much to see — and let us 
be thankful for it — that can never be labelled or imprisoned 
in a museum ; there is much even that cannot be uttered, that 
the heart must divine. 

One at least of the dread problems of ancient Volterra is 
brought very clearly before us by that great Piscina within 
the Porta all' Arco, itself perhaps the most wonderful thing 
in the city, between it and the Fortezza, which it is so difficult 




VOLTERRA : PORTA ALL ARCO 



VOLTERRA 43 

to get permission to see. It is a great well, or reservoir, with- 
out which no city, howsoever strong her walls, could avoid 
surrender. It was the failure to obtain plentiful water that 
always troubled Siena, and Volterra had provided herself 
with it in a situation even more difficult centuries before 
Siena was anything but a negligible stronghold of the hills. 
Whether that great cistern is the work of the Etruscans, 
repaired and perhaps enlarged by the Romans, or whether it 
is a contrivance of Rome, is difficult to decide. The tremen- 
dous work of the Etruscans, however, is not far off, and before 
attempting to explore the city itself every traveller should pass 
out of the Porta all' Arco, and if he cannot make a complete 
circuit of the ancient walls, which were some five miles in 
circumference, he should at least pass westward to Porta S. 
Felice, still outside the mediaeval city but within the Etruscan, 
continue his way to S. Chiara, and so to that horrible preci- 
pice, Le Baize, by S. Giusto, which is so surely swallowing 
Volterra itself. There can be little anywhere in the world to 
compare for antiquity with the spectacle offered by that brief 
walk. Thousands of years have gone to the making of it, and 
these works, so tremendous in their material features, are not 
less impressive in their spiritual significance, for they were 
probably standing when Troy fell, they were old when 
Romulus ploughed on the Palatine, they have heard the 
words of the augur and watched him divine the future in 
the face of the rising sun or the flight of a bird, they have 
heard Pan piping in the woods and seen him desolate upon 
the mountains, they have heard the wild chant of the 
Bacchante when the grapes were purple in the waning 
summer, and watched the priest make Christ out of bread and 
wine in the early morning when our voices were hushed for 
fear and the worshippers were few. They are part of the 
bulwarks of Europe ; we built them when we were young and 
believed in the future, therefore we piled one stone upon 
another that it should never be removed, and our faith was 
justified in our work ; it is the earth that has grown weary of 
the weight we set upon it and, subsiding into that abyss, Le 



44 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Baize has brought down what nothing save earthquake has 
been strong enough to destroy. 

What those who built these walls believed, what they 
thought concerning life and death and the world in which 
they dwelt, we may discover, though but dimly, in the splendid 
museum of the Palazzo Tagassi, the Museo Guarnacci. There 
in some fourteen rooms is arranged a collection of some six 
hundred cinerary urns dating from the second or third cen- 
tury B.C., the latest period of Etruscan art. The execution 
of the reliefs carved upon them is feeble and even rudi- 
mentary, but the subjects are clear enough. Then, too, we 
were sorry to say farewell, and set forth on that long last 
journey with as good a heart as might be ; we sacrificed to the 
gods, followed our brothers to the grave, and were glad at 
evening. That the men who carved these caskets for the 
ashes of their fellows were Europeans their work testifies, but 
indeed we know little more about them ; we cannot read their 
language nor decipher their inscriptions. Only such funereal 
signs as these we have and may understand, for they speak 
that universal tongue which proclaims still our brotherhood. 

There is but little in Volterra to-day that bears witness to 
the Roman occupation that befell after Sulla's two years' siege : 
the Piscina perhaps, the inner fagade of the Porta all' Arco, 
scarcely anything beside. But what Volterra owes to Rome, 
what we all owe to the most stable rule Europe has ever 
known, is the establishment of the Catholic religion, and 
Volterra is not poor in Christian monuments. There is 
nothing here, of course, that can be claimed as due to the 
Empire, and in the tenth century Volterra, Hke the rest of 
Christendom, had fallen into decay ; she owes her resurrection 
as a small encampment, as it were, within her vast old walls to 
the Holy Empire, to the Ottos. To this period nothing now 
remaining within the city strictly belongs, unless, indeed, it be 
certain arches or parts of arches, towers and gates, but the 
ruined Badia beyond S. Giusto, the ruined church of Santo 
Stefano outside the Porta S. Francesco, and the abbey of S. 
Salvatore, are Romanesque buildings of the eleventh century. 



VOLTERRA 45 

Within the city the oldest building is the Duomo, which 
was consecrated in 11 20 by Pope CaHxtus II, and which was 
restored and enlarged by some builder of the Pisan school, 
certain authorities say by Niccolb himself, in 1254. Though 
it was spoiled in the sixteenth century by the restorations and 
works of Ricciarelli, a nephew of Daniele da Volterra, the 
Duomo is still interesting, its fagade being wholly of thirteenth- 
century work^ save the doorway of black and white marble, 
which seems to be later. Within, the church is a spacious 
Latin cross, and it holds several works of art which are worth 
more than a passing glance. 

The most ancient of these is the beautiful pulpit, a splendid 
work of the Pisan school, consisting of a four-sided rostrum, 
supported by four granite pillars standing on the backs of 
crouching lions. Each side of the rostrum is filled with a 
fine relief of the early thirteenth century, that in front showing 
us the Last Supper, with Judas crouched at the feet of Christ, 
who gives him the sop, while behind him lurks that old 
dragon, the ancient enemy of God and man ; at the sides are 
the Salutation and the Annunciation, and at the back the 
Sacrifice of Isaac. To the right and left of the western doors 
we find some further reliefs, fourteenth-century works of much 
charm, representing the Life of SS. Regolo and Ottaviano. 
These tender and lovely things deserve more attention than 
they are ever likely to get. But the Duomo is rich in sculp- 
ture. On either side the high altar, on two exquisite twisted 
columns, two angels by Mino da Fiesole kneel. It is to 
Raffaele Cioli, a sixteenth-century master, we owe the beau- 
tiful sarcophagus with attendant angels where S. Ottaviano 
sleeps. 

And then, if the Duomo is rich in marbles, it has some 
astonishing works, too, both in terra-cotta and in wood. 
Perhaps the finest of these is the bust of Pope S. Linus, the 
immediate successor of S. Peter, made by Andrea della 
Robbia, but the S. Sebastian, a work of his school, is not to 
be passed over, and the Presepio group, with a fresco by 
Gozzoli for background, and the Adoration of the Magi, are 



46 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

two of the finest works of their kind in Tuscany. In wood — 
and wooden statues and groups are always rare and always 
valuable and expressive — we find here in the Duomo a fine 
Deposition. But all the woodwork — the choir stalls, the splen- 
did work in the sacristy especially — and the fine metal reliquaries 
of the fifteenth and sixteenth century, a crucifix of silver, and 
such, should be carefully examined. They are part of the 
unspoiled charm of Volterra — a charm rarely to be met with in 
the more accessible cities of Tuscany, where everything lovely 
or curious has been stolen from the church and exhibited in 
the museums. 

Of pictures the Duomo of Volterra can make no boast. 
Those she has are charming but of little real importance or 
beauty. The polyptych, painted in 141 1 by Taddeo di 
Bartolo, which used to adorn the Oratorio di S. Carlo, is now 
in the Museum, as is the Annunciation which Luca Signorelli 
painted in 1491, and the Nativity of Benvenuto di Giovanni; 
there remains a small triptych with an Annunciation, the 
Madonna and Child, and the Crucifixion within, and without 
S. Peter and S. Paul, and a picture of the Annunciation by 
Albertinelli. 

The baptistery, an octagonal building of the thirteenth 
century, stands opposite the cathedral. The beautiful arch 
over the high altar is the sixteenth-century work of Balsimelli 
da Settignano, while the font, octagonal too, like the building 
in which it stands, is the work of Andrea Sansovino. The 
splendid tabernacle of marble, about which angels kneel in 
adoration, is the beautiful work of Mino da Fiesole. 

These two buildings, fine and rich as they are, by no means 
stand alone in Volterra. Every church, and there are many, 
is full of interest. There is S. Lino, for instance, built in the 
fifteenth century, which contains the fine tomb of the scholar 
Raffaele Maffei, with a recumbent statue by Silvio da Fiesole. 
There is S. Francesco, a thirteenth-century church rebuilt in 
1623, which possesses a fine relief of the Assumption by a 
pupil of Andrea della Robbia, and out of which one passes 
into a little chapel of the Holy Cross, built in 1315, in almost 



VOLTERRA 47 

perfect preservation and covered with frescoes, for the most 
part by Cenni di Francesco. There on the walls one sees the 
Massacre of the Innocents, the Invention of the Cross, and, 
indeed, all that wonderful story delightfully told as in S. Croce 
of Florence, but as it were in miniature. The whole chapel 
is still a fine example of what such a place as this was in 
the fifteenth century. 

Again, in S. Pietro we find two of those wonderful wooden 
statues, an Annunciation, like those at Castel-Fiorentino 
and S. Gimignano ; and in S. Michele, over whose door is a 
Madonna and Child of the thirteenth century, is a fine 
Madonna and Child in a splendid niche, perhaps by Giovanni 
della Robbia. 

It is pleasant on an afternoon, too, to stroll out of Porta 
a Selci, and in some half-mile to come to the convent of 
S. Girolamo, for it is full of beautiful things, and is itself, with 
its shady loggia, one of the most charming buildings about 
this harsh old city. There we find a great terra-cotta relief by 
Giovanni della Robbia of the Last Judgment, beneath which 
are three predelle — the Annunciation, the Nativity, and the 
Adoration of the Magi. There, too, are several of those 
delightful country pictures that so often delight us in Tuscany 
— Madonna and her little Son with S. Francis and five other 
saints, perhaps by Zanobi Machiavelli, and, better still, a 
wonderful golden Annunciation by Benvenuto di Giovanni, 
where Madonna sits, very tall, upright, and full of grace, 
girdled with Cherubim, while S. Gabriel Archangel, crowned 
with olive — and that was for the peace about to be pro- 
claimed twixt earth and heaven — fallen on one knee, repeats 
his message, S. Raphael standing on one side thrusting at the 
dragon, S. Catherine on the other with her palm of martyrdom, 
and in the sky God the Father, in the midst of Cherubim and 
golden angels, sees that all is well and blesses our world. 
Beneath, the donor kneels praying to Madonna. 

It is such a thing as that which makes all our trouble to 
reach Volterra, all our mournfulness within her walls, worth 
while. 



48 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

But if, indeed, we are to consider pictures here, we must do 
so in the Pinacoteca, whither so many — too many — have been 
taken out of the churches. The gallery of Volterra is to be 
found in the Palazzo dei Priori, that splendid great palace 
with the two-storied tower close to the cathedral in the Piazza 
Maggiore. Begun in 1208, and completed in 1257, the 
Palazzo dei Priori is very like the Palazzo Vecchio of 
Florence, while its tower reminds one both of that at Florence 
and of the Mangia of Siena. 

In the Pinacoteca the Florentine school is represented 
chiefly by the work of Ghirlandajo and Carli. Ghirlandajo's 
picture, a large and curious altarpiece, the Redeemer in 
Glory, represents our Lord enthroned upon the Cherubim, an 
open book, inscribed with Alpha and Omega, in His left hand, 
while His right is raised in blessing. On either side an angel 
kneels in heaven in adoration. Beneath, as it seems in Val 
d' Arno, in a smiling landscape of river, hill, and valley, stand 
SS. Benedict and Romuald, and beside them kneel SS. Attinia 
and Greciniana. ^ In the right-hand corner of the picture 
we see the donor, a Camaldolese, in prayer. This magni- 
ficent work comes from the Badia, to which it was given by 
Lorenzo de' Medici. 

Raffaelle dei Carli is represented here by an altarpiece of 
the Madonna, Saints, and Angels — an early work Mr. 
Berenson tells us. We find his hand again in the Anticamera 
here in the Municipio, in a fresco of the Madonna and Child. 

Coming now to the Sienese pictures, we turn first to the 
Adoration of the Shepherds by Benvenuto di Giovanni, a 
delicious altarpiece, where above God leans from heaven amid 
a crowd of singing angels to bless our world, the Holy Dove 
descends through the darkness, and Christ Himself, a little 
child, lies at His mother's feet beside the careful ox in the 
rude stall. Far away in the winter fields an angel tells 
the glad tidings of great joy to the shepherds who are come to 
worship Him. Beneath this simple loveliness are four predelk 
pieces of the Life of the Virgin — her Birth, her Presentation in 
the Temple, her Marriage, and her Assumption. This great 



VOLTERRA 49 

work was painted in 1466, and to the same year belongs the 
Annunciation of S. Girolamo. 

An earlier painter, Taddeo di Bartolo, is represented here 
by a great triptych of Madonna and Child with Saints, and, 
charming as it is, it cannot move us in the way that perhaps 
the greatest Tuscan master, who was neither Florentine nor 
Sienese, never fails to do. There are three works by Signorelli 
in the Municipio, two of them in the Museo, and all were 
painted in 1491. The Madonna and Child with Saints comes 
from S. Francesco, the Annunciation from the Duomo, while 
the S. Girolamo, a fresco on the first landing of the staircase, 
is still in its own place. 

But these strong or tender works, for all their rarity and 
beauty, have, in fact, little in common with Volterra. Day by 
day as you go to and fro in the narrow streets, in the con- 
tinual shadow of those frowning palaces and mediaeval towers, 
or at evening watch the sunset over the horror of the Baize, 
you realize that Volterra has little in common with the Tuscany 
you have loved — the Tuscany of Giotto, of Fra Lippo Lippi, 
of Botticelli, of Sano di Pietro, and Sassetta. Etruscan still, 
she towers over that bitter desolation of which she seems to 
be the final and complete expression, the last monument of a 
civilization titanic and incredible that forms the tremendous 
and hidden foundation of our own. Yes, in spite of that 
mediaeval town which is so impressive and insistent in that 
naked corner of the ancient city where you dwell, your final 
thought of her is as of something more elemental than that, 
less complicated and more absolute. She has grown out of 
that bitter landscape which surrounds her till she has become 
a part of it, till in herself she has summed it up. As your 
eyes pass slowly from the vast height at which you seem to 
stand over that tremendous desolation to the far-away sea 
and the dark and jagged outline of the mountains of Elba and 
Capraja, you are conscious only of emptiness, a negation of 
life, as in some vast landscape in the Inferno over which the 
sun never rises, or where, if it rises, it has no kingdom nor 
effect. Then at last your gaze falls on the ruined city, out 



so SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

of whose wonderful debris that huge fortress rears like some 
heraldic beast, a terrific sign obscuring the sky. And it is as 
just that, for it is your last sight of her as it was your first, that 
you remember her ever after — a cruel sign in heaven, the 
bitter, the monstrous standard of Death reared over the abyss 
in loneliness and desolation. 



COLLE, POGGIBONSI, S. LUCCHESE, 
STAGGIA, MONTERIGGIONI, AND 
BADIA A ISOLA 

TO cross those barren watersheds that enclose Volterra, to 
descend from those desolate heights, to return to Val 
d' Elsa, to Colle, is to achieve something more than a return 
to Tuscany, to all that we mean by Italy ; it is, as it were, to 
escape from the shadow of death and to return to our world. 
As you cross the great hills, little by little the sun begins to 
shine again with its old splendour, Elsa is golden with light, 
the vineyards and the olive gardens seem full of joy ; little by 
little you lift up your heart. And at Colle, which I won at 
evening, I found the streets happy with songs. 

Set on a fair hill with a modern town at its foot, Colle, the 
old hill city, is one of the heroic castelli of this valley which 
led indeed to Siena, but which was so largely in the power of 
the Florentines. That stone signed with blood, which, as the 
good Villani tells us, was the foundation of Colle, is at least 
significant of her history, since her position here in Val d' 
Elsa, at the head of the valley close to Poggibonsi, on the 
frontiers of Florence and Siena, always thrust upon her that 
difficult and dangerous choice : would she follow the Sienese 
or the Florentines? 

The cities that lie behind us in the valley — Castel- 
Fiorentino, Certaldo, and S. Gimignano — when the time came 
for them to lose what independence they had been able to win 
from the nobles or the Bishop who had received them from 

51 



52 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

the Empire or the Church, had, in fact, but little choice : the 
power of Florence was already so great that they found them- 
selves already within her contado. It is different with Colle, 
Poggibonsi, and Staggia. These three little towns, the first 
two more especially, grew up actually upon the frontier, the 
continually disputed frontier of the two great rival states of 
Tuscany. And until in the end of the thirteenth century 
Florence finally disposed of Ghibelline Siena, the territory that 
lay between these little hill towns was a continual battle-field. 

As might be expected, Staggia and Poggibonsi, lying so 
near to Siena, sided with her, while on that account Colle 
leaned to the side of Florence. Not that any one of the three 
cared more for Florence than for Siena, but that since Poggi- 
bonsi, for instance, had chosen, or had been compelled to 
choose, one side, Colle perforce chose the other, for in those 
days, the nearer the neighbour the greater the enemy. 

On a larger scale one sees this extraordinary individualism 
in action throughout Tuscany in the Middle Age. Pisa is 
Ghibelline, therefore Lucca is Guelf; Florence is Guelf, 
therefore Pistoja and Arezzo are Ghibelline. It was not 
that any one of them was eager for the cause of Emperor or 
Pope, but that all were passionate in defence of their own 
independence, and sought to use the great quarrel in their 
own behalf. Such was the birth of Nationalism \ but no one 
understood it. Even to Dante the condition of affairs was 
incomprehensible. Confused in the inevitable confusion, he 
cursed the cities of his fatherland, and dreaming of the Empire, 
welcomed into Italy a Barbarian king. 

As it was with the greater cities, so it was with such castelli 
as Colle, Poggibonsi, and Staggia : with this difference, how- 
ever, that whereas the greater cities were in fact independent, 
and only in theory at any time dependent upon the Empire or 
the Holy See, the smaller towns were continually and actually 
at the mercy of their greater neighbours, and were compelled 
to change their colour with the victory or defeat of these in a 
quarrel not their own. 

Colle, which had always leaned to Florence because 



COLLE 53 

Poggibonsi stood for Siena, had fallen to the Ghibellines 
after Montaperto in 1260. It was in 1269 that she was 
forced to decide once and for all, so that in that year just 
for a moment her history becomes vivid, looking down from 
her hill-top on the battle that avenged Montaperto and finally 
decided the fortunes of Tuscany. 

The battle of Montaperto, fought and won by the Sienese 
and the German Ghibellines in 1260, had seemed doubtless 
once and for all to dispose of the Guelf cause and the power 
of Florence. In that fight, which dyed the Arbia red with 
blood, "was routed and destroyed the ancient people of 
Florence," more than 2,500 were slain, and over 1,500 "of the 
best of the People of Florence " led into captivity. Siena 
seemed to have the hegemony of Tuscany in her hands. 
And no doubt, had she followed the advice of her leader, 
Provenzano Salvani, and razed Florence to the ground, she 
might have looked forward to a century of lordship. But 
Farinata degli Uberti at Empoli was too strong for the 
lord of Siena. The man who in his fiery sepulchre seemed 
to Dante to hold Hell itself in scorn was not likely to be 
beaten by an impetuous Sienese. Alone in the assembly at 
Empoli, where the fate of Florence was debated, he forbade 
the decision that would have destroyed her. He had his 
way, and by that act secured the lordship of his city and 
the overthrow of Siena. In the year of the great victory 
Siena may well have thought she could afford to be 
generous; that again but proved her unfitness to rule. 
Politics know no generosity; to spare your enemy when 
your own life is at stake is weakness. So it proved with 
Siena. Six years after the battle, in 1266, the Ghibelline 
cause and the city of Siena received a staggering blow in the 
death of Manfred. In that same year a second Popolo rose 
in Florence, and the Conte Guido Novello, untractably 
Ghibelline, with his friends was expelled the city, the Guelfs 
were restored, and their enemies sent into exile. Two years 
later Corradino was taken at Tagliacozzo, and King Charles, 
wiser than the Sienese in the same year, struck off his head 



54 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

in Naples. Where was the Ghibelline cause now ? In fact, 
it was dead. It was but its ghost that startled Italy when 
Henry VII crossed the Alps — a ghost finally laid at 
Buonconvento in 1313. 

Now in the year 1267, when Manfred was dead, Charles of 
Naples and the Florentines had taken Poggibonsi from the 
Sienese, and with it Colle. It was in June, 1269, that 
Provenzano Salvani, governor of Siena, thought the time 
had come to reclaim them. In this, too, he showed the 
Sienese failing — a lack of judgment. 

"In the year of Christ 1269," writes Giovanni Villani,' 
"in the month of June, the Sienese, whereof M. Provenzano 
Salvani, of Siena, was governor, with Count Guido Novello, 
the German and Spanish troops, and the Ghibelline refugees 
from Florence and other cities of Tuscany, and with the forces 
of the Pisans to the number of 1,400 horse and 8,000 foot, 
marched upon the stronghold of Colle di Val d' Elsa, which 
was under the lordship of the Florentines ; and this they did 
because the Florentines had come in May with an army to 
destroy Poggibonizzi. And when they had encamped at the 
Abbey of Spugnole,^ and the news was come to Florence on 
Friday evening, on Saturday morning M. Giambertaldo, vicar 
of King Charles for the League of Tuscany, departed from 
Florence with his troops which he then had with him in 
Florence: to wit, 400 French horse; and sounding the bell 
and being followed by the Guelfs of Florence on horse and 
on foot, he came with his cavalry to Colle on Sunday 
evening; and there were about 800 horsemen or less, with 
but few of the people, forasmuch as they could not reach 
Colle so speedily as the horsemen. It came to pass on the 
following Monday morning, the day of S. Barnabas, in June, 
the Sienese, hearing that the horsemen had come from 
Florence, broke up their camp near the said abbey and 
withdrew to a safe place. M. Giambertaldo, seeing the 

^ G. Villani, " Cronica," Lib. vii, cap. 31. 

^ The Badia di Spugnole stood at the foot of the hill of Colle, on the 
left bank of the river. 



COLLE 55 

camp in motion, without awaiting more men, passed the 
bridge with his horse, and marshalled his troops, with 
the cavalry of Florence and such of the people as had 
arrived, together with them of Colle (who by reason of the 
sudden coming of the Florentines were not duly arrayed 
either with captains of the host or with the standard of 
the commonwealth) ; and M. Giambertaldo took the standard 
of the commonwealth of Florence and requested of the 
horsemen of Florence, amongst whom were representatives 
of all the Guelf houses, that one of them should take it ; 
but none advanced to take it, whether from cowardice ^ or 
through jealousy one of the other; and after they had been 
a long time in suspense, M. Aldobrandini, of the house of 
Pazzi, boldly stepped forward and said, * I take it to the 
honour of God and the victory of our commonwealth ; ' 
wherefore he was much commended for his boldness. And 
straightway he advanced, and all the horsemen followed 
him and struck boldly into the ranks of the Sienese; and 
albeit it was not held to be very nice and prudent leadership, 
yet, as it pleased God, these bold and courageous folk, with 
good success, broke up and defeated the Sienese and their 
allies, which numbered well-nigh twice as many horse and a 
great number of foot, whereof many were slain and taken ; 
and if on the Florentine side the foot had arrived and had 
been at the battle, scarce one of the Sienese would have 
escaped. Count Guido Novello fled, and M. Provenzano 
Salvani, lord and commander of the host of the Sienese, 
was taken prisoner; and they cut off his head and carried 
it through all the camp aloft on a lance. And thus was 
indeed fulfilled the prophecy and revelation made to him 
by the Devil in an incantation, though he never understood 
it. For having invoked him to learn how he would fare in 
that expedition, he made a lying answer and said, ' Thou 
wilt go up and fight; thou shalt conquer, not in battle shalt 
thou die, and thy head shall be highest in the field.' And 

^ Probably they remembered the fate of the standard at Montaperto, 
and the effect of its fall on the battle. 



S6 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

he thought he had the victory by these words, and hoped 
to remain lord over all, for he did not put the comma in 
the right place, and detect the fraud thus, ' Thou shalt 
conquer not, in battle shalt thou die.' . . . " 

Such is Villani's account; it agrees in the main with the 
Sienese version, but is sparing in detail. It seems that 
Provenzano Salvani was taken prisoner, and after the battle 
Cavolino Tolomei, a Sienese exile, his personal enemy, stole in 
disguise through the trenches in search of him, and when he had 
found him, suddenly stabbed him to the heart, and cutting off 
his head, placed it on his lance, and so rode through the camp. 

Cavolino Tolomei was not the only Sienese exile who 
rejoiced in the defeat of his countrymen. Sapia, a lady of 
Siena, watched the battle from a tower near the field, and 
prayed for the victory of Florence. Her confession is in the 
thirteenth Purgatory : — 

" To fui Sanese, rispose, e con questi 
Altri rimondo qui la vita ria, 
Lagrimando a Colui che se ne presti. 
Savia non fui, avvegna che Sapia 
Fossi chiamata. . . . 
Erano i cittadin miei presso a Colle 
In campo giunti co' loro avversari ; 
Ed io pregava Dio di quel ch' e' voile. 
Rotti fur quivi, e volti negli amari 
Passi di fuga ; e veggendo la caccia, 
Letizia presi a tutt' altre dispari ; 
Tanto ch' i' volsi 'n su 1' ardita faccia, 
Gridando a Dio : omai piu non ti temo. ..." 

Thus was Montaperto avenged. In that vengeance the 
Ghibelline cause was killed, and the battle of Colle ended 
the age-long wars between Florence and Siena. For not long 
after the Florentines restored the Sienese exiles and drove out 
the Ghibellines, and there was peace between the common- 
wealths, which, according to Villani, " remained ever after 
friends and allies." 

Lingering in Colle, to-day so full of a country quiet, one 
scarcely suspects it of so momentous an action as that fight 



POGGIBONSI 57 

proved to be. Decay, death if you will, has fallen upon it 
with an infinite grace, and you pass up its steep ways, through 
a street of still picturesque palaces, including one by Antonio 
da Sangallo the Younger and the house of Arnolfo di Cambio, 
in and out of many churches, with an ever-fresh delight in 
the smiling, gay aspect of the little city so wonderfully over- 
looking the quiet valley. Here and there you pass a monu- 
ment in those narrow ways, now and then a tabernacle made 
lovely by the work of some dead painter for the comfort of 
men dead and gone these many years, but still for our delight. 
In the Via Venti Settembre it is perhaps Pietro di Domenico 
who charms you with a fresco of the Adoration of the Magi, 
in the Via Gozzina and the Via S. Lucia it is Pier Francesco 
Fiorentino, first with a fresco of the Madonna and Child 
between two Bishops, and again with a fresco of the 
Annunciation. 

And the churches are serene and glad ; each possesses 
something to give you joy. In the Duomo, for instance, you 
find a fine pulpit set on four ancient marble columns ; in 
S. Agostino, over the first altar on the right, a picture of the 
Madonna and Child, and a little farther on, over the third 
altar, a fine Piet^ painted in 152 1 by Ridolfo Ghirlandajo ; 
while in the Conservatorio di S. Pietro you come upon the 
work of Giovanni di Paolo in a picture of the Circumcision ; 
and in the Palazzo Antico del Comune you find two works by 
Pier Francesco Fiorentino — an altarpiece of the Madonna and 
Child and four Saints complete with predella^ and a Madonna 
and Child, S. Bernardino, S. Antony Abbot, S. Mary Mag- 
dalen, and S. Catherine. 

But charming as Colle is, and convenient for the wayfarer, 
she will not hold you long from the road that leads to Poggi- 
bonsi and Siena. 

Poggibonsi, indeed, is but five miles away, and I found her 
one evening like a ghost on her hill over the whispering poplars. 
This apparition, however, proved to be the Castello, the town 
itself — to which I came presently — lying on a low hill close to 
the road and the railway in the valley. There I found a good 



58 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

inn, the " Aquila," which I had not done at Colle, and for a 
night and a day I was content. 

History has little or nothing to do with the town of Poggi- 
bonsi; where it touches her it is concerned only with the 
beautiful castello, which, after the battle of Colle, the Floren- 
tines destroyed ; for Poggibonsi still clung to the bankrupt 
cause of the Empire ; she was the friend of Siena. ^ 

And to-day, save her own country beauty, she has really 
nothing to offer us. I wandered through her gay and noisy 
streets, passed in and out of her churches, and climbed in a 
long afternoon up to the castello ; I found nothing but a few 
country frescoes. 

So on the next morning soon after dawn I set out where 
the road led to Siena. It was still quite early ; the stillness of 
the hours about the sunrise had not yet been broken. The 
whole valley was asleep, till slowly the pure, cold dawn, wrapped 
in a grey mantle, stole down from the hills through the woods 
into the vineyards and the gardens of olives. I was marching 
along thus in the earliest morning, singing to myself, on the 
way to Siena, when suddenly the road forked, and I found 
myself standing before a great and old church beside a 
convent, around which a few poor houses were set. 

Now before the church stood a peasant of perhaps thirty 
years, and he gave me good-day. Presently, when we had 
spoken of the fine autumn the gods had given us mortals, and 
he had told me his name was Beppino and I had told him 
mine in English and in Italian, a little bell began to ring, and 
so we went into the church together, I a little in advance. 

And when we had heard Mass — a low Mass said swiftly in the 
twilight by a little Friar of S. Francis — he presently came 
towards us, for, save a child who served him and two old 
women, we were all his congregation. He greeted Beppino, 
who introduced me, and then I asked him the name of this 
place and the dedication of the church, what fame it had and 
what relics, and why it was set there at a turning of the way 
not two miles out of Poggibonsi. 

' See note 2, p. 320. 



SAN LUCCHESE 59 

The last question he could not resolve, but the rest were 
easy. First, he told me that the name of the convent and of 
the place was S. Lucchese, then that it was famous on account 
of that very saint, who, as I doubtless knew, was a great 
servant of God, and moreover a Franciscan of the Third 
Order ; and, thirdly, that the relics they had were his, and 
that I should see them. 

We saw them, and when that was finished he proceeded to 
discover other treasures to us, to wit : a fine picture of the 
Noli Me Tangere over an altar on the right of the nave, and a 
Madonna and Saints by some disciple of the Robbia, made in 
1 5 14. Then, leading us both into the convent, he placed 
bread and wine before us, and began his tale. 

"You must know, Signore, and thou, Beppino, that this 
church and convent were built by the Franciscans of the 
Observance, to which Order I also — a little poor devil — belong, 
and that it stands here on this hill on the site of an abbey of 
Benedictines called Poggiomarturi. It was here in this very 
place that the Emperor Henry VII encamped when he retired 
from that unfortunate siege of Florence, of which you have 
heard, Signore, and you have not, O Beppino ; and in memory 
of this the place was called Poggio Imperiale. Also you must 
know that Cosimo I, the Grand- Duke, later fortified it also. 
These are things doubtless to lend it some little fame, but its 
glory, Signore, has nothing to do with emperors or dukes, or 
even with Benedictines — its glory is due to our most Holy 
Founder, S. Francesco, and to that gran servo di Dio^ S. 
Lucchese, who loved him. 

"This S. Lucchese, Signore, or more properly S. Lucesio, 
was born, as our records tell us, in the castello of S. Casciano, 
in the contado of Florence ; others have it otherwise, but it is 
no matter at all, for wherever he was born it was here he lived 
and here he died on the 28th day of April, 1260. That was a 
wonderful year, as doubtless the Signore knows. Many won- 
derful things befell in it, but none, I can assure the Signore — 
none half so wonderful as those which accompanied the death 
of S. Lucchese. 



6o SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

" S. Lucchese was born, Signore, in the end of the twelfth 
century of very honourable ancestors, and, as it happened, in 
the flower of his age he fell in with a maid of the best manners 
and disposition, whom he married ; her name was Buona- 
donna, whence she was called Buona or Bona. By her he had 
several children, whom he brought up in the fear of God. 
But in process of time a certain Personage in the town where 
he dwelt was moved by a most fierce hatred against him, so 
that our S. Lucchese found it best to depart from his own 
place and to come to Poggibonsi, where, indeed, he had 
some property. 

"Signore and Beppino, our S. Lucchese was, as you might 
expect, a very good Guelf, and, having lost much of his sub- 
stance in the cause, he decided here in Poggibonsi to open a 
little shop of mercanzia mista^ but especially of provisions and 
food, which he was able to buy cheaply and to resell to great 
advantage, O Beppino, wherefore he made much money and 
grew rich. 

" Now, with all respect for the Signore, who is doubtless as 
charitable as he is rich and powerful, riches are a great snare 
even to the most well disposed, and often a curse in disguise. 
For what is the comfort of the body in comparison with the 
safety and peace of the soul ? Out of all comparison nothing : 
is it not so, Signore ? Well, riches, as ever, proved a snare also 
to S. Lucchese. He coveted more and more, cut down his 
charities, and hoarded everything he could scrape up, Uke any 
peasant, O Beppino, or like any Jew. Then, Signore and 
Beppino, came repentance. He wept bitterly for his sin, and 
to remedy the evil he had done he determined to dispense all 
he had in charity, not waiting for his death, but immediately 
at that moment, O Signore and Beppino, reserving only a 
very small portion with which to buy a little orticello^ a little 
garden plot for his sustenance and that of his wife, with whose 
consent he finally proposed to retire from the world. Just 
then, as God willed, S. Francesco himself, who dazzled the 
angels, came by, and S. Lucchese, moved by God, sought him 
out and desired from him the habit of a Tertiary of our Order, 



SAN LUCCHESE 6i 

and, indeed, Signore, he was the first that ever received it, for 
all this befell in 1221. No long time after his wife Bona 
followed his example, and determined to live a solitary life, so 
separating herself from her husband, not without tears, she 
entered the Third Order also. 

"But S. Lucchese, O Signore, was not content to give all 
that he had to the poor; naked as he was of this world's 
goods, Beppino, he tramped all through the country-side 
begging alms from the faithful that he might spend them 
on the poverty and especially on the sick, many of whom he 
would succour or take to the hospitals, carrying them thither 
when they were helpless on a little ass he had, bidding them 
bear all their miseries for the love of God. Also, each year in 
summer-time he would carry himself to the Maremma, where, 
as the Signore doubtless knows, owing to the malignity of the 
air at that season, many are sick and many die. To these he 
brought such succour as he had, and presently returned to his 
hermitage. 

" Now, having given away everything for the love of God, 
he was in grievous want, and when his wife found him thus 
she feared for him and besought him with tears to spare 
himself, for indeed they loved one another very well. Going 
secretly to the cupboard, she found it bare, even of bread, and 
turned to upbraid him ; but as it chanced just then, Signore 
and Beppino, there was a knock at the door, and when S. 
Lucchese opened it, behold a poor and old man seeking food. 
Then S. Lucchese bade his wife bring some food, but she, 
knowing the cupboard to be bare, laughed at him half in 
tears. Nevertheless, to please him when he bade her go 
again, she went, and, opening the cupboard, found it full 
of bread. And, marvelling greatly, she brought it to him ; 
and ever after was as eager as he in her gifts, and rested not 
from charity. 

" Twice at least each week the Blessed Lucchese with the 
greatest devotion received the most holy Sacraments of Penance 
and of the Eucharist, and because many times after receiving 
the Bread of the angels he went into ecstasies he hid himself ; 



62 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

nevertheless he was privily observed while kneeling in prayer 
to be lifted from the ground two or three braccia by unseen 
hands, and so to taste the delights of Paradise. 

" So the fame of his sanctity was noised abroad that one 
day a certain priest, one Rainuccio, came to visit him, and, 
entering into his garden, saw that he had sown there certain 
onions, Beppino, and wishing to transplant some of them to 
his own garden the priest asked leave of the Blessed Lucchese, 
who readily gave it, so that he took all but a few, Beppino, 
and these few Rainuccio begged him to bless. After some 
persuasion with a certain reluctance S. Lucchese made over 
them the sign of the Cross, to please the priest ; who, return- 
ing on the day following, found to his amazement that the 
onions had been replenished, O Signore and Beppino, so that 
they were as many as before, but that they now grew in the 
form of the holy sign of our salvation. And this miracle 
being published in these parts — to the great displeasure of the 
saint, who begged the priest to say nothing of it — caused the 
folk hereabout to venerate him more than ever. 

" Well, Signore, about this time the blessed wife of this 
most blessed servant of God and brother of our Order fell 
sick, for she was growing old and had long been ailing. 
Therefore S. Lucchese proposed to visit her and to be present 
with her when she received the Blessed Sacraments. And so 
it happened that as she received our Blessed Lord even in 
that hour he prophesied in this wise : ' My most dear com- 
panion,' says he to her, *we have already abandoned the 
riches of this world together in order to serve our Lord in 
Heaven, and He will presently grant us the grace to depart 
still together to rejoice in Paradise. In this expectation I 
also have taken these same Sacraments that I have watched 
you receive.' So saying he made the sign of the Cross over 
her, and, kneeling beside her, took her in his arms and 
tenderly kissed her; and thus they remained a long time, 
Signore, till many having entered in and watched them for 
some time, the parish priest spoke to them, and, getting no 
answer, touched the Blessed Lucchese on the shoulder : and 



SAN LUCCHESE 63 

behold ! he was dead, and his wife with him, even as he had 
said. All this befell, Signore and Beppino, on the 28th day 
of April, 1260, and on that day we keep the feast here in this 
church, which was built in their honour." 

" Well," said I, after a properly long minute, " I thank you 
for your story." 

'' But as to the onions . . ." said Beppino. 

No one spoke. Only the Frate rolled a grave eye over 
Beppino, that summed him up from head to foot. 

"I was thinking of the onions," said Beppino again a little 
hurriedly. " It seems to me, Messer Frate, that this holy 
man, of whom you have had the poUteness to tell us, may well 
have sown them too profusely, as one is apt to do if one 
is thinking of other things, as in my case girls, as in his saints 
in Paradise. It comes to the same thing, does it not, Signore ? 
I mean it has the same effect. Thus, since he had sown 
these onions too thick, when the prete took away the greater 
part of them — and we know how natural that was — this 
Blessed San Lucchese transplanted the rest, as one who 
loves onions and knows them will never omit to do, and he 
planted them in the shape of the Holy Cross to please his 
fancy. Now it runs in my head that when the priest returned 
with a guilty conscience, Signore — for had he not taken as 
many as he could carry ? — he jumped to the conclusion, when 
he saw the ground all planted out, in that holy shape, too, that 
the Blessed Angel guardian of S. Lucchese had got even 
with the devil for once. Therefore he raised that hue and 
cry, deceived by his own evil heart. And it is easy to under- 
stand the distress of S. Lucchese when that old rooster, 
thinking he had happened on a wonder, went crowing 
through the paese — for he was a very honest man, and he 
could not expose religion when once it had committed itself 
to that tale. So, Signore, he shouldered the miracle." 

" But," said I, hastily, seeing that the Frate had long had 
the fidgets, "but what then of the bread that was there and 
not there ? and then, again, what of the ecstasies, the lifting 
from the ground, the prophecies ? " 



64 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

"The Signore says well," said the little Frate in a terrible 
voice, low and a little shaky ; " what of the bread, Beppino, 
that was not there, what of the ecstasies and the lifting, 
Beppino ? " 

Beppino was in no way disturbed: he looked across the 
valley to the far hills. Then he spoke. " In the matter of 
bread," said he, " I am no expert ; ecstasies, Messere, I 
confess I know nothing of, nor of such lifting or prophe- 
cies as you describe. These may all be as they may be; 
but onions I know / . . ." 

Beppino left me at the gates of Staggia, some five chilometri 
up the valley, where he had business. Here I was truly across 
the Sienese frontier, of which this old and broken fortress had 
been one of the guards. A walled village about a rocca^ 
Staggia is a ruin ; what remains of life is to be found in the 
plain at the foot of the hill on which the old rocca stands, 
beside which passes the Roman road and the torrent that 
takes its name from the fortress. 

Staggia is an ancient lordship and stronghold of those 
nobles, descended, as some say, from the Contessa Matilda, 
who took the surname de' Franzesi. They ruled in Staggia 
from 994 certainly till 1227, when the people of the place 
united themselves by a public act dated 10 August to the 
Commune of Poggibonsi, and from that time Staggia and her 
district remained a part of that Commune. Before that, how- 
ever, in 1 156, and again in 11 74, Staggia had been in the 
thick of the quarrels between Florence and Siena, and had 
been able to give a good account of herself. But to-day 
she is of little account, her picturesque ruins tell no tale, 
nor has she much to offer us in the way of entertainment. 
Only in her Pieve di S. Maria you may see a fine picture, a 
panel painted in oil, from the hand of Antonio Pollaiuolo,^ of 
the Communion of S. Mary of Egypt. This fine work was 
rescued from the neglect into which it had fallen by an 

^ Cf. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (ed. Edward Hutton), " A New History 
of Painting in Italy " (Dent, 1909-10), vol. ii, p. 387. 



STAGGIA, MONTERIGGIONI 65 

American, the well-known connoisseur, Mr. F. Mason 
Perkins. To his enthusiasm the wayfarer in Southern Tus- 
cany owes very much, as we shall presently see, but I think 
our debt to him was never so obvious as it is here in Staggia, 
where is conserved for our delight a masterpiece by one of the 
greatest masters of Florence, not in a gallery but in the church 
for which it was painted, in this lonely and half-deserted village. 

From this poor place I was glad to set out on the road 
again that led me still up the valley of the Staggia, ever 
nearer to Siena. It was not quite midday when I set out, and 
though the valley was delicious to look upon and cooler than 
the hills, it was yet very hot. Nevertheless I stuck manfully 
to the road, with the promise of Siena in my heart at evening. 
So I marched, not singing now but in silence, till after some 
seven chilometri of dust and sun the towers of Monteriggioni rose 
before me across a bend of the river about a low, isolated hill. 

More beautiful than Staggia, Monteriggioni has yet much the 
same character ; it is a walled village, half-deserted now, close 
to Via Francigena. Nothing is known of its origin or whence 
it had its name. We shall, however, certainly not be far 
wrong if we conclude that it was built by the Sienese to guard 
their northern approach. Andrea Dei even tells us that it 
was first fortified by the Sienese in the year 12 19, the same 
year, he says, in which the fagade of the Duomo of Siena was 
completed. However that may be, long before that we read 
of it as a fortress, and sixteen years before, it suffered siege. 

In 1254 it was ably defended, and successfully resisted the 
Florentines when they attacked Siena and destroyed Poggi- 
bonsi for the first time. After Montaperto it was fortified 
again, and more strongly, by Siena, and it was then Dante saw 
it "crowned with towers,"^ so that he likens that abyss 
"turreted with giants," which he describes in the thirty-first 
Inferno, to this great castello. 

So strong was it that in 1266, owing to the general inse- 
curity of the country-side, the people of Badia a Isola and of 

* Cf. Aquarone, "Dante in Siena" (Citta di Castello, 1889), cap. iv, 
pp. 64-69. 

F 



ee SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

the places round were invited by the Nine of Siena to enter, 
or at least to live under the castello. Though it seems to 
have escaped the fate of Poggibonsi in 1269, it fell into the 
grasp of Florence at last some three hundred years later, on 
25 August, 1554, when the Marchese di Marignano, com- 
mandant-general of the Imperial and Medicean army, took it 
on his way to Siena. But by then Italy was dead. 

Now, as it happened, it was here in Monteriggioni that my 
plan of walking into Siena at nightfall came to nothing. For 
at the inn they told me of a certain abbey hard by, now fallen 
to a mere parish church, which conserved even yet certain 
pictures beyond price. And so, often as I had been deceived 
by such rumours, being in the mood for adventures, I set out. 

I found the Abbey, Badia a Isola, some two miles away 
to the west of Monteriggioni. It is very ancient, most worthy 
of a visit, and possesses, as they had told me, three fine 
pictures of the school of Siena. It gets its name, as you 
might suppose, from the nature of the country hereabout, on 
the lower flanks of Monte Maggio, where a little lake has 
formed, so that the Abbey was often called not only Badia a 
Isola, but Badia del Lago. Founded in looi by the Contessa 
Ava, daughter of Conte Zanobi, and widow of Ildebrando del 
Franzesi di Staggia, near her castello of Borgonuovo, with the 
consent of her sons, Tegrimo and Benzo, it was enriched 
from time to time by this illustrious clan. Many Popes con- 
firmed it in its growing power and wealth, and we see the fruit 
of these concessions, gifts, and favours in the baronial dominion 
which the Benedictines exercised in those early centuries over 
the territory of their churches, towns, and castelli in the country 
between Siena and Poggibonsi. In 1221 Corrado, Bishop of 
Spira and Legate of Frederic II, on behalf of the Empire con- 
firmed to them in feud all these possessions in a diploma of 
28 December. 

For some two hundred years they seem to have flourished, 
till in 1446, owing to the growing unhealthiness of the district, 
caused no doubt by the continual wars, the monks of S. 
Salvatore, for the Badia was dedicated to our Saviour, were 



BADIA A ISOLA 67 

reunited by a Brief of Eugenius IV with those of their Order 
at S. Eugenio, some two miles to the south of Siena. 

Their church, with the annexed S. Rufiniano, was con- 
tinued as a parish church and baptistery, which it remains to 
this day. It is a building of three naves upheld by columns, 
and in the sacristy is the tomb of the founder, Contessa Ava, 
with her bust on a column of granite. In the church itself I 
found the pictures I had come to see : a fine fresco of the 
Madonna, Saints, and Angels, by Taddeo di Bartolo ; again, 
on the left wall, there is a fresco of the Assumption of the 
Blessed Virgin, very fine and imposing, with single figures of 
Saints, by Vecchietta; and a great polyptych over the high 
altar is by Sano di Pietro. More precious still, perhaps, is an 
altarpiece by some follower of Duccio.^ 

All this was very well worth coming to see, but it effectually 
prevented my reaching Siena afoot that night. Perhaps I 
lingered too long amid this country loveliness in one of the 
sweetest and quietest byways of Tuscany. However that may 
be, it was not to Monteriggioni I returned, but over the hills to 
the station of Castellina, and so, though I reached Siena at 
evening, it was by train in the company of a host of poor 
people, who made me welcome and joined with me in praise 
of the incomparable city we all loved — Sena Vetus^ Civitas 
Virginis. 

* On Badia a Isola see V. Lusini in Bullettino Senese, An iv (1897), 
pp. 129-135, and A. Canestrelli in Stena Monumentale, An ii (1908), 
fasc. i and iv. 



VI 
SIENA 

I THINK perhaps there is nothing in the world quite Hke 
Siena, no other place, at any rate, that has just her gift of 
expression, her quality of joy, of passion, of sheer loveliness. 
It is true that in Florence you will find a clear, intellectual 
beauty, virile and full of light; that in Assisi, that little super- 
terrestrial city in Umbria, a mysterious charm — is it the beauty 
of holiness ? — will discover itself to you in the memory of a 
love, touching and still faintly immortal, pathetically reminding 
you of itself like the fragrance of a wild flower on that rude 
mountain-side ; but in Siena you have something more than 
these, something more human and not less divine — how shall 
I say? — you have everything that the heart can desire : a situa- 
tion lofty and noble, an aspect splendid and yet ethereal, a 
history brave, impetuous, and unfortunate, a people still living 
yet still unspoiled by strangers. Yes, Siena set so firmly on 
her triune hill, towers there even to-day with a gesture of joy, 
radiant and beautiful, caught about by her vineyards as with 
a kirtle of green, girdled with silver and gold — the silver of 
her olives mixed with the gold of her corn. 

It is thus she always seems to me when I come to her, it is 
thus I always remember her from afar, a place of happiness, of 
welcome, a fortress still, it is true, but without a threat — a. 
fortress dismantled, in the hands of invincible peace, where 
every tower has become a dwelling-house, every bastion a 
garden, every bulwark a shady walk, where the gates are open 
wide that the children may run in and out. 

68 



SIENA 69 

Come to her any spring morning from Florence, where a 
certain surliness in the people might seem to bear witness to 
the foreign domination there, and she will win you at once. 
A certain sparkle and sweet glitter in the light, even without 
the gates, lifts up your heart, and long before you have passed 
half-way down Via Cavour the charm of the place has fallen 
upon you almost in spite of yourself, unreasonably, too, 
for you will never be able to decide just what it is that has 
caught you, to define in what her delight consists. Is it in 
her aspect of conscious Hfe, her unity, her individuality, her 
aloofness, the city climbing upward, built as it were in one 
piece, crowding round the Cathedral, and sharply divided 
from the country which the walls scarcely thrust back ? Is it 
in the architecture, the sheer beauty of form and colouring of 
the city itself, so consoling after the phiHstinism of Florence? 
Or is it in the people, their speech so pure that any other 
sounds like a dialect, their manners, their noble bearing, their 
fine courtesy, so that you discern in them at once the aristo- 
cracy of Italy ? Or is it in the beauty of the women ? — and 
there are no such women anywhere else in Italy as those 
pale, wilful, sweet ladies who pass and repass up and down 
Via Cavour in the twilight with a mother or a husband or a 
sturdy little maid for company and protection. Or is it in the 
laughter of the children, so fresh and so delicious in the cool 
green of the Lizza, which you may hear any golden morning 
and can never forget, since it is the one thing which reminds 
you ot home ? It is perhaps all these things together and a 
thousand beside which your heart takes note of though you 
be all unaware. 

The modern spirit, a mean utilitarianism, has stolen away 
the universal beauty of Rome, is even now overthrowing 
Venice, and has rebuilt and ruined Florence ; but Siena it 
has not really touched, she remains perfectly herself. Perhaps 
it is in that we find a good part of our delight. No noisy 
trams rush through her beautiful mediaeval streets, which are 
still Hned with palaces, splendid and severe; not separated 
from the lesser houses, but joined to them with only here 



70 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

and there an opening through which you see a vista of steep, 
lofty narrow way under an arch, perhaps, that leads suddenly 
and swiftly down into the valley, or winds slowly up-hill, where 
the wind rushes madly to and fro or sighs wearily in the dark- 
ness, where the sun rarely peeps. And these streets that tunnel 
and climb and wind so narrowly and steeply through the city 
are at once lively and quiet — lively by reason of the children 
who play in them, the women who gossip at their shadowy 
doorways, the pedlars and hawkers who cry their wares between 
these ancient echoing walls. The only traffic that passes up 
and down these paved, narrow, twisting, climbing ways is the 
barocci of the charcoal merchants, the asses of the woodmen 
laden with wood from the mountains, or the great wagons 
drawn by drowsy white oxen, whose horns almost touch the 
houses on either side the narrow ways as they draw slowly 
home the burden of wine from the vineyard. Yes, they are 
quiet enough, only never silent, echoing every now and then 
with the musical cries of pedlars above the voices of many 
women, mixed with the laughter, the inarticulate cries of 
babies, of children. And in and out of these narrow ways, 
now hidden by a tower or shut out by a high roof, the sun 
looks down and the shadows advance and recede, and over 
all, between the tall houses, is a strip of soft blue sky. 

It is much the same with the great street lined with little 
shops — the chief street of Siena, which runs quite through the 
city, entering at the Porta Camollia and leaving by the Porta 
Romana, the Via Francigena, indeed, though within the 
walls it is called by various names, of which the chief is 
Via Cavour. 

Here the sweet noises of life, so individual in the narrow, 
steep ways, are mingled together and broken for the first time 
by the sound of wheels. You come into this clamour on your 
way from Porta Camollia, where the Via delle Belle Arti turns 
down-hill. A mere vague murmur at first, it waxes louder and 
louder, resolving itself at last into the hum of many voices, till, 
before the Loggia dei Nobili, where a great crowd conducts its 
business in the street, you come really into the midst of it, and 



SIENA 71 

are surprised when, having pushed your way through these 
busy, cheerful people, in less than twenty yards you find your- 
self alone again on that paved way, between the tal], sober 
palaces, almost in silence. 

But though it be in her streets — these narrow, lofty 
byways — that Siena is still living and to be found, it is not 
in them that she has set her pride. All the nobility, the 
impetuous ardour and valour of Siena, for the most part 
unrepresented or at least largely invisible in her streets, is to 
be found in the Campo — that beautiful piazza, shaped like a 
shell, before which stands the rosy Palazzo Pubblico, over 
which rises the loveliest tower in Italy, La Mangia. This is 
the true centre of the city ; and in its light, its fantastic and 
lovely shape, in the dizzy and noble height of its tower, all 
that is most characteristic of Siena might seem to be hidden 
and expressed. Yet that palace, that piazza, that tower stand 
less conspicuous in any view of Siena from the walls than the 
Cathedral, which, set on a spur of one of the three hills on 
which Siena stands, shines like some precious casket or taber- 
nacle far over the country-side — the capitol of the city of the 
Virgin. 

Nothing in Siena becomes her so well, or so certainly sums 
her up as her Cathedral, into which, in its aloofness, its pride, 
its distinction, its beauty, and broken ambition, the history of 
the city seems to have passed. It is set perfectly in a great, 
silent space, a miracle of light. It is true its fagade is dis- 
appointing, but it is something more than a barn before 
which a miracle has been performed, as Orvieto is. Look at 
it from the Lizza ; it is like a pure virgin guarding the city, the 
long, exquisite line of the aisles broken by the perfect transept, 
and the great octagon over it. Enter and be comforted by 
the distinction of its colouring, the strength and majesty of its 
romanesque, the nobility of its lantern over the crossing. It 
is here and in those great lean churches, S. Domenico and 
S. Francesco, that you will learn what Siena is, her true 
aspect — there and in the altarpieces of Duccio, the pictures of 
Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti. For in the strangely 



72 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

ardent, almost pathetic beauty of Siena there is something 
Byzantine, an exquisite finish, an elaborate ornament which 
belong to the earliest painters of miniatures. Often at even- 
ing, looking on her from S. Barbara when the world is so 
quiet, and in the dim valleys and on the clear hill-sides the 
grey olives are a mist of silver, the cypresses very still and 
black against the blue and gold of the sky, suddenly she has 
seemed to me, piled up so closely, house over house, church 
over church, tower over tower, culminating in that almost 
visionary Duomo, like a city out of a missal — one of those 
exquisite, unreal places past which the Magi came to 
Bethlehem — the very city at whose gate S. Anne waited 
for Joachim, in whose valleys Christ was baptized by John, 
against whose battlements of old was set the Crucifixion. 

For there is an element not wholly explicable in Siena — an 
element of strangeness, of wonder, which we must confess we 
do not wholly understand. As she stands there on her triune 
hill, dreaming of the Middle Age, she seems more than a city, 
more than the work of man, for she expresses something 
that is hidden from us, that we can only guess at dimly as we 
gaze over her profound valleys across the garden of her coniado 
to the desert on whose verge she stands. 

It is just that, perhaps, which day by day as you abide with 
her comes at last to impress you most, to mix with your every 
thought of her and in some dim way seems to have informed 
her with itself : she stands on the edge of the wilderness and 
looks all day long across a vast desolation to the faint, far-away 
outline of a great mountain — the most beautiful mountain in 
Tuscany, Mont' Amiata. 

It is this spectacle, so profound, moving, and expressive, 
that little by little grows into your heart as you pass up and 
down the steep, winding, narrow streets, from church to 
church, from palace to palace, from sanctuary to sanctuary : 
the smiUng, gay persuasive loveliness of Siena is set against 
the solemnity of that beautiful mountain, against the barren 
loneliness of that desert, out of whose virile and mysterious 
beauty she has sprung up Uke a rare and delicate flower. It 




SIENA FROM THE VALLEY 



^' Of THE 

UNIVERSITY 



SIENA 73 

is this contrast which, as it seems to me, lends her half her 
charm. On the verge of that vast country of scarred rock and 
channelled clay, where the sun is without pity and there is no 
sound or song, she seems more human in her beauty than in 
fact she is. For, with all her happiness and joy, she is aware 
of the loneliness that is about her ; she never forgets the 
bitterness of the desert or the silence of the mountains on 
which she must look all day long. You will find them not 
only in herself, in the city we see to-day, but in everything she 
has done. For in her story, as in her work — the great altar- 
piece of Duccio, for instance, the lovely spellbound pictures 
of Simone Martini, the flowerUke panels of Sassetta, her vast, 
cold Duomo, her dizzy Mangia tower, there is that element 
of strangeness without which, it is true, there is no excellent 
beauty, but which here seems to be their chief characteristic. 
How sensitive they are to that silent country out of which 
they are sprung ! They have understood the mystery of that 
desert, and have drawn from its lean strength a certain curious 
sweetness. 

Nor is it only in material things such as these that we 
find that strangeness which is so characteristic of her, but 
in her history also and in those who made it ; above all, 
in her saints and in that religion which, with her alone in 
Tuscany, was mystical. Consider then such an action, almost 
religious in itself, as the battle of Montaperto and all that led 
up to it — the strange self-abnegation, self-accusation, and love, 
the impassioned belief which, in fact, caused the miracle ; 
consider the wild prayers for as miraculous a deliverance from 
Charles V; consider S. Catherine and S. Bernardino; but 
chiefly consider that worship of the Blessed Virgin in which 
the whole city expressed itself, which compelled every gentle- 
man to place his hands between hers and to swear allegiance, 
and which inspired an impassioned loyalty in every man, 
woman, and child. 

In all these actions and in all these people there is an 
element of insanity, something strange and unconfined, out 
of proportion, as it were, with anything but that vast waste 



74 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

country of barren clay and rock which is stretched out before 
her, across which the eternal mountains shine. 

In summer, half veiled in heat, invisible at noon, and 
beautiful at evening, you miss its true character and meaning. 
But watch it on a dark or threatening day, a day of storm or 
wind, when it surges against every gate and is uptossed by 
every bastion. It is as though that masculine and voracious 
wilderness, more barren and more terrible than the sea, had 
hurled itself against the city, and would have consumed her 
but for the protection of Her she still invokes, in Whom for 
so many ages she has found safety and peace. 



VII 

POLITICAL SIENA 

THE story of Siena, as we examine it now, eager 
for the mere truth, and not to be overwhelmed or 
deceived by the facts or the rhetoric of chroniclers or his- 
torians, would seem to resolve itself into the narrative of 
a struggle waged by a great hill-town against forces greater 
than itself, against forces that from the beginning were too 
strong for it. These forces, so certainly antagonistic to the 
real establishment of Siena as the great power in Tuscany, 
were of two kinds — the one geographical and the other political, 
more or less deriving from the first. Set as she was, upon a 
goodly hill, the last westward spur of the Chiana range, in 
the very heart of Tuscany, Siena was from the first a lonely 
city ; lonely not only in that she had, and could have, no near 
neighbours, but geographically lonely, too, in that the country 
which surrounded her was very distant from the sea and pro- 
vided no natural highway, such as a river, by which she might 
reach the world — on the contrary, the nature of the country in 
itself cut her off from every part of Italy. To the south lay a 
vast desert of rock and clay in which nothing would grow or 
prosper j to the west lay the Maremma, a loneliness of swamp 
and death ; while to the north and east lay difficult ranges of 
hills. This loneliness in the earliest Middle Age was somewhat 
mitigated, it is true, by the coming of that great road Via 
Francigena which united Cisalpine Gaul with Rome ; but, on 
the other hand, nothing was done then — very little has been 
done even to-day — to provide against the most serious of all 

75 



76 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

the drawbacks from which the city suflfered, the want of water 
— not merely the lack of a great river such as the Arno, which 
was crudely navigable certainly so far as Signa — but the want 
of water for industrial purposes. Thus from the beginning 
Nature herself had handicapped Siena beyond hope in the 
race for the headship of Tuscany. Nor was the other force 
which prohibited her victory less formidable. Something 
has already been said of the psychological and spiritual 
influence of the landscape, of the world in which she stands, 
on the city herself; its action upon the people of Siena was not 
less profound. Impetuous, easily cast down, as easily uplifted, 
without persistence or that unconscious and almost brutal 
strength, characteristic of every people destined for domina- 
tion, Siena was from the first at the mercy of her great and 
cruel antagonist, Florence, the favourite of Nature, who had 
been given everything Siena lacked — a magnificent position in 
Val d' Arno between three mountain passes, easily rendered 
impregnable ; a splendid navigable river within reach ; a 
race without aristocratic prejudices, cunning, formidable, 
and persistent. 

From the first, then, there was no doubt as to which of 
these two cities would in the end dominate Tuscany, and 
perhaps hold the balance of power in Italy ; their story 
but confirms our logic. 

Thus Siena is a city of the Middle Age. Her great period, 
if that can be called great in which so little was achieved, and 
which was always on the verge of disaster, is the thirteenth 
century. After that time her geography, her civil discord, a 
shameful foreign policy, an unimaginable disaster brought her 
to nothing.^ 

Her romantic story, more fascinating, certainly more 
sympathetic, than that of her great rival, invites us to 
inquire into her origin, if so be we may find there the 
causes of her decadence, though, in fact, they are writ large 
enough for all to see in the strange and beautiful country in 
which she lies. Her origin, however, is hidden from us. The 
^ See note 7, p. 326. 



POLITICAL SIENA J7 

oldest chronicler who speaks of her is our John of Salisbury, 
who asserts that she was founded by the Britons, a certain 
Brennus, captain of the Senones, having provided a camp 
here for his sick and wounded soldiers.^ This legend, how- 
ever, fantastic as it is, does not explain the Sienese badge of 
the wolf and the twins, which first appears, indeed, in the 
thirteenth century. Some legend, indeed, older than any we 
now possess connecting Siena with Rome there must have 
been, but whatever it was archaeology does not support it. 
On the contrary, if it assures us of anything, it is of the 
Etruscan origin of Sena Vetus, for a small Etruscan Necro- 
polis has been uncovered near the Porta CamoUia, and so far 
as we may know it seems probable that it was not till B.C. 90 
that the Sienese were granted by the Lex Julia citizenship of 
Rome. Even if this much be true, it would prove no more 
than the existence of a community, probably on the hill we 
now call Castel Vecchio, in the later days of the Roman 
Republic. What is certain, however, is that it was Augustus 
who, in B.C. 29, established Sena as a Roman colony. Of 
her condition under the Empire we know little. It is 
legend which tells us, without much authority, that it was 
S. Ansano who converted her to Christianity. Before the 
fifth century, however, she certainly received a Bishop and 
became the capital of a See. That she was ruined with the 
advent of the Dark Ages seems certain ; at any rate, we hear 
nothing of her till Rotharis, King of the Longobards, restored 
her Bishopric in the seventh century, when there followed 
what was probably her first quarrel with one of her sister cities, 
Arezzo, which was not finally decided till fifty years later, after 
the restoration of the Empire. 

^ This story, and others more vague but of a like nature, have been 
eagerly accepted by the Florentine chroniclers, who gladly asserted 
that Siena owed her origin to an infirm and foreign folk (^. Villani, 
Lib. i, cap. Ivi). The legends of Siena's Roman origin belong to 
the Renaissance. See L. Douglas's " History of Siena," p. 5 ; 
E. G. Gardner's "Story of Siena," and W. Heywood's Historical 
Introduction to *' A Guide to Siena " (Torrini, Siena) ; and notes 3 and 4, 
infra^ p. 321. 



78 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

That restoration confirmed, if it did not establish, the 
power of the Bishop in Siena, as in other cities, and at 
the same time FeudaHsm, that marvellous and logical theory 
of political and economic life, began to take the place of the 
independent, anarchic allodial system. Feudal castles held 
by Imperial nobles sprang up in the contado^ holding the 
road to Rome and the ways to the sea, and all who passed 
by paid tribute. Nor was the property of the city itself 
exempt. Indeed, a continual war was waged by the nobles 
the one upon another, and thus the whole country was kept 
in a condition of fear and insecurity. This state of affairs in 
some sort explains the power of the Bishops in all the Tuscan 
and Umbrian cities. For the citizens, untrained to war, 
townsmen as they were, anxious for trade, could do nothing 
against these nobles, who, in such aeries as the Aldobrandeschi 
possessed in S. Fiora, were really answerable to no one, and 
entirely safe and invincible. Thus it was to the Church, 
and first to the spiritual power of the Church, that the 
citizens looked for protection and redress. So things 
developed through the ninth and tenth centuries, till in 
the eleventh we find the Emperor eager to acknowledge 
the temporal dominion of the Sienese Bishop ; nor does 
it seem that he was sorry to find a power strong enough 
to curb his unruly barons, whom he was powerless to keep in 
order. In this way the Bishop gradually became a tenant 
in capite of the Empire, and, in fact, wielded, beside his 
spiritual power, a very considerable temporal weapon also. 
Thus the Bishop as a temporal lord owed a new alle- 
giance to the Emperor as well as his ancient and original 
allegiance to the Pope.^ As temporal lord he superseded 
the Count, the earlier representative of the Crown in Siena, 
and ruled absolutely within the walls of the city. This rule 
was good for Siena ; it protected the people from spoliation at 
the hands of the nobles of the surroundmg country and at 
the hands of the hordes of Barbarians that were continually 
marching through Italy. It failed at last because ultimately 
' See note 5, p. 322. 



POLITICAL SIENA 79 

the Bishop was dependent for armed force on a part at any 
rate of the people. This party, the milites^ the fighting-men, 
forced him to admit them to a part in the government. 
Consuls arose, their representatives, who at first shared the 
government with the Bishop, and at length superseded him as 
he had superseded the Counts. 

Thus rose the Commune, at first a completely aristocratic 
state, but modified little by little till the party opposed to the 
milites^ the populus^ obtained a real part in it. But even 
before that the supersession of the Bishop was certain. An 
opportunity soon offered itself. A quarrel about the juris- 
diction of a monastery in the contado which was dependent 
on a convent in Florence, and which the Sienese wished to 
see placed under the rule of Vallombrosa, was the ostensible 
cause of the final rupture with the Bishop and the Church. 
The Consuls went so far in 11 69 as to try to compel the 
clergy to acknowledge the antipope when Alexander III 
would not grant their request. But the real reason of this 
rupture was jealousy of Florence. The Emperor had already 
in 1 158 acknowledged the existence of the Commune, and 
had protected it. And we may see perhaps the first expres- 
sion of the Ghibellinism of the Commune in its breaking 
with the Church, and gladly becoming the great feud of the 
Empire in the heart of Tuscany. 

The allegiance of Siena directly to the Emperor does not 
seem to have been given without an attempt on the part of 
the Church party to prevent it. In 11 85 we find the city 
divided, and on the advent of Frederic the Church party, in 
a moment of tumult, shut the gates against him, and defeated 
him in the battle of Rosario. A year later peace was 
re-established, and the Commune undertook to pay an annual 
tribute, while it gained a full recognition of its right to elect 
Consuls, to issue money, and to tax its citizens and its vassals 
in the contado. Among the first works of the Commune was 
that of gradually forcing the nobles of the contado to come 
into the city. Thus began the allegiance of Siena to the 
Emperor — an allegiance strengthened in 1209 by the visit of 



8o SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Otho IV to the city, when all the privileges of the Commune 
were confirmed. 

In the first years of the thirteenth century, therefore, we see 
the Commune firmly established, allied with the Emperor 
for their common good, but in fact his vassal owing him 
allegiance. For Siena had become nothing less than a 
feudatory of the Italian kingdom ; her relation to the 
Emperor was the same as that of the dukes and marquises of 
Germany ; she was his tenant in capite^ while the nobles 
of her contado submitted to her suzerainty were arrere vassals. 
Indeed, the relation of the contado to Siena was as substantially 
feudal as was her relation to the Emperor. 

But the history of Siena in the thirteenth century is the 
history of her rivalry with Florence, in which for a brief 
moment she gained the advantage, only to be finally beaten 
in the fight for supremacy before the century's end. The 
struggle has little or nothing to do with the claims of Pope 
or Emperor; it has absolutely nothing to do with any 
struggle between the aristocracy and the democracy; it is 
primarily an economic struggle, in which Siena, starting 
with a seeming advantage, was betrayed from the beginning 
by Nature, by her geographical position, and the character of 
her people. 

Like most of the great wars, this small but famous combat 
was a fight for commerce. At the opening of the thirteenth 
century the Sienese were the great bankers and tradesmen of 
Italy. When the Commune forced the nobles of the contado 
into the city they had devoted themselves to the formation of 
commercial companies of adventure. They dealt in money 
chiefly, but also engaged in the Eastern trade and established 
houses in England and France. They were the bankers of the 
Holy See, and in return the Church helped them to collect 
their debts. It is, then, as the determined commercial rivals 
of Siena that we see the Florentines time after time, from the 
end of the twelfth century till their final victory at Colle, 
attack Siena. On the other hand, all the policy of Siena 
was devoted to the protection and development of what 



POLITICAL SIENA 8i 

she possessed. She sought to subdue the great feudatories 
of the contado in order to ensure the safety of the roads to 
Rome, to the North, to the sea. Florence opposed her and 
supported or encouraged the feudatories in order that she 
might herself dominate these roads. For this cause she 
would not permit Siena to establish herself in Montepulciano 
and Montalcino to the South, or in Staggia or Poggibonsi to 
the North. Florence herself tried to hold the Chiana valley, 
and supported the Aldobrandeschi in their struggle with Siena 
in the Maremma. 

We shall see when we come to examine the region to the 
south of Siena between Asciano and Mont' Amiata how 
favourable that desert region of low clay hills was to that 
robber nobility which Siena sought to vanquish for the 
sake of her trade. Yet she beat them, and her victory 
was used with wisdom and moderation ; but it achieved 
little more than to unmask the real enemy who stood 
behind these chieftains ; whom she could never destroy. 

It is thus that all through the first half of the thirteenth 
century we see Siena fighting with the nobles of the contado^ 
reducing them to impotence, and in their place establishing 
her own power. ^ This great work can never have been 
more than half done, for she was always compelled to con- 
sider and nearly always to come to terms with Florence. 
From the first she fought a losing battle ; Montaperto, that 
resounding victory, after all has no importance — it was but 
an incident. 

In the first year of the thirteenth century Siena was forced 
by her rival to give up all hope of domination in the Val 
d' Elsa, for Florence seized Semifonte, the strongest fortress 
in that region ; in return, Siena was allowed the right to take 
Montalcino if she could. No doubt she sacrificed the North 
in the hope of finally securing the South. If any such hope 
was in her, she was wofully deceived. With Montalcino in 
her hands, she tried to occupy Montepulciano. Florence 
immediately refused to permit this, at the same time laying 
' See note 6, p. 325. 



82 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

claim to Tornano, a fortress less than nine miles north-east 
of Siena. The whole quarrel was submitted to the decision 
of the Podest^ of Poggibonsi, who so far favoured Florence 
that he deprived the Sienese of any rights they had in 
Poggibonsi, and brought the Florentine frontier within 
six miles of Siena on the north. Florence immediately 
allied herself with Montepulciano. Siena appealed to the 
Tuscan League, to which both she and Florence belonged. 
The League decided that Montepulciano belonged to Siena ; 
Florence promptly repudiated the decision. War followed in 
1207, land Siena was signally beaten at Montalto. Before 
peace was signed in 1208, Siena was forced to renounce the 
rights she claimed in Poggibonsi and those she had been 
awarded in Montepulciano. There followed fifteen years of 
peace, which saw the prosperity of Siena wonderfully in- 
creased, in spite of her loss of territory. Frederic II 
befriended her and established Poggibonsi as an Imperial 
stronghold, at the head of the Val d' Elsa, similar to 
S. Miniato at its mouth. Florence, meanwhile, was at war 
with Pisa, and Siena seized the opportunity to consolidate 
her power to the south, humbling the Aldobrandeschi and 
taking Grosseto from them, thus establishing herself in the 
Val di Merse and the Val di Ombrone. 

This seemed so like success, that in 1228 Siena made 
another attempt to bring Montepulciano under her rule. 
But the time was unfortunate ; Frederic II had just 
abandoned the Crusade, and when he returned to it, 
nevertheless the Pope cursed him. This set all Italy by 
the ears, and revived the old quarrel, and Orvieto, in secret 
treaty with Florence, renewed an old alliance with Monte- 
pulciano. In the war which followed success at first 
still favoured Siena, but presently Aldobrandino Aldobrandeschi 
forsook her, and she seems to have lost heart. At any rate, 
the Florentines were able to destroy very many of her 
fortresses and to burn and spoil her contado up to her very 
walls, taking at last Porta CamoUia by surprise and entering 
the city as far as S. Pietro della Ragione, and, according to 



POLITICAL SIENA 83 

the Florentine chronicler, "had they not been pitiful, they 
might have destroyed all Siena with fire and sword." 

Then Siena, in her great danger, put aside the private 
quarrels that distracted the state, and beat back the 
Florentines. Nevertheless, she lost Montalcino and any 
chance she had of bringing Montepulciano under her sway. 
Yet two years later she took the place, avenged herself on 
Orvieto, and made a new compact with Montalcino. But 
Florence was not to be denied. In 1233 she stirred up the 
people of Montalcino to revolt; she once more ravaged 
the contado^ and this time for two years. Siena was 
reduced to starvation. By 1235, in spite of the capture of 
Campiglia d' Orcia, on the slope of Mont' Amiata, a very 
redoubtable piece of work, Siena was ready for peace at 
any price. It was granted on condition of a renunciation of 
lordship in Montepulciano and restoration to Orvieto of all 
that had been taken from her, and among other things a dis- 
solution of an alliance made during the war with Poggibonsi. 

Siena was in the dust, but she was still alive; her 
commerce remained to her, and, as so often happens after 
a defeat, she reformed her constitution, setting up now the 
famous Council of the Twenty-Four — half nobles, half 
popolani — under which she was to attain her greatest 
triumph. 

The new Government enjoyed a long peace of fifteen years. 
In June, 1240, Frederic II visited the city, and was joyfully 
received, but his exactions daunted the people, and Proven- 
zano Salvani, the greatest of the Sienese, who now comes on 
the scene, went so far as to bid them not to invite ruin for the 
sake of the Emperor, but to use him for their own advantage. 
Ten years later Frederic was dead, and the Ghibelline cause, 
which had seemed so prosperous, was in jeopardy. Indeed, in 
a moment the whole position had been changed, or, rather, 
the development which had been taking place was suddenly 
obvious to all. Florence seized her opportunity, and, thinking 
to free herself from Pisa, whose port had been necessary to 
her, she made a compact with Guglielmo Aldobrandeschi for 



84 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

a free passage of goods through his dominions to the Maremma 
port of Talamone. Pisa, thinking her prosperity to be 
threatened, agreed with Siena, Pistoia, and Arezzo, while 
Florence answered by calling Genoa, Lucca, and Orvieto to 
her aid. 

War broke out in the autumn of 125 1. The Sienese armies 
were beaten, and Pisa submitted. The result, however, was 
fortunate for Siena in this, for the Florentines, with Porto 
Pisano open to them, gave up all thought of Talamone. 

The peace of 1254 thus secured was, however, but a truce. 
In September of that very year Manfred, Frederic's natural 
son, who had sworn allegiance to Innocent III, revolted. 
Gathering his Moslems, he made war in Apulia, and recovered 
that province for himself. In the midst of the successes of 
his enemy Innocent died. 

At first it seemed as though the new peace of Tuscany 
would not be broken. In July, 1255, the envoys of Florence 
and Siena met and concluded an " eternal amity," which, as 
it happened, lasted scarcely three years. By this peace the 
two cities swore, among other things, not to harbour one 
another's exiles; but when, in 1258, the Ghibellines were 
expelled from Florence, Siena took them in. From that 
moment war was merely a question of opportunity. 

Preparations to meet it were made during the ensuing year 
both in Siena and in Florence. In the spring of 1259 Siena 
sent ambassadors to Manfred for his assistance. He agreed 
to send help, and in December Giordano of Anglano, cousin 
of the King, entered Siena with his knights, to be joined later 
by a troop of German horse. Florence meanwhile engineered 
a revolt in the Maremma. Grosetto and her sister cities 
rebelled, but with the help of the German horse Siena was 
able to compel surrender. Then Florence decided upon per- 
sonal action. It is impossible to deny that she was threatened. 
Manfred's troops in Siena forced her to make war. She set 
forth some thirty thousand strong with the carroccio^ but the 
vast body of troops moved slowly, and a month elapsed before 
it came in sight of Siena. There followed some doubtful 



POLITICAL SIENA 85 

skirmishes, in which the German troops of the Sienese seem 
to have suffered badly. Then the Florentines marched away. 
The Sienese, having been reinforced by Manfred, prosecuted 
the war. They tried to seize Montalcino. So the Florentines 
set out again in August with contingents from Prato, Volterra, 
S. Gimignano, and Bologna, by way of Val di Pesa, and pitched 
camp not far from the castle of Montaperto in Val d' Arbia. 

From Pieve Asciata ambassadors had been despatched to 
Siena with an insolent ultimatum. They arrived in Siena on 
2 September, and they found the Council of the Twenty- 
Four in session in the church of S. Cristofano in Piazza 
Tolomei. "Without making any reverence or obeisance," 
they delivered their message : ^ " We will that this city be 
forthwith dismantled and that all the walls shall be levelled 
with the ground that we may enter and depart at our pleasure. 
. . . And further we will to place a Signoria in every Terzo of 
Siena at our pleasure; in like manner to build forthwith a 
strong fortress in Camporegi and to garrison and provision it 
and to maintain the same for our magnificent and potent 
Commune of Florence ; and this right quickly without any 
delay. As for you, if ye do not do all that we have com- 
manded you, ye may await with certainty to be besieged. . . ." 

The Twenty-Four replied, without boasting, in the follow- 
ing manner : " We have heard and understood that which ye 
have demanded, and we bid you return to the captain and 
to the commissaries of your Commune and to say unto them 
that we will give them answer face to face." 

The chronicler continues : " Now the citizens of Siena had 
heard of the cruel demand of the Florentines . . . and all the 
city was moved. And all the people left their dwellings and 
came to S. Cristofano ; and so great was the multitude of the 
people in Piazza Tolomei and through all the streets that 
scarcely were they able to contain them. 

^ I use the splendid translation here and in what follows of Mr. William 
Heywood. See " Palio and Ponte" (Methuen, 1904), p. 25, et seq. See 
" La sconfita di Montaperto secondo il MS. di Niccol6 di Giovanni di 
Francesco Ventura," in " Miscellanea Storica Sanese " (Siena, 1844). 



86 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

" And when they beheld this, the Twenty-Four who ruled 
and governed the city of Siena forthwith assembled a council ; 
and it was proposed to make a syndic who should have full 
pre-eminence and power and should embody in his own person 
the authority which belonged to the whole body of the citi- 
zens collectively ; and that he should be empowered to give, 
grant, sell, and pledge Siena and its contado as to him might 
seem advisable. 

" As if inspired by God, the said councillors by common 
consent chose for syndic a man of perfect and good life and 
of the best qualities which at that time could be found in 
Siena, by name Buonaguida Lucari. To him was given full 
and free authority and power, as much as had the whole body 
of the city, as is said above. And while this man was being 
elected syndic our spiritual father, Misser the Bishop, caused 
the bell to be rung to call together the clergy of Siena, priests, 
canons, and friars, and all the religious orders in the church 
of the Duomo of Siena. And all the clergy being gathered 
together as you have heard, Misser the Bishop spake briefly to 
those clerics who were there and said : ' Tantum est ministri 
Virginis Dei^ &c. . . . 

" Now while Misser the Bishop was making procession with 
his clergy in the Duomo, God by reason of the prayers of the 
clergy and of all good people who prayed to Him throughout 
the city — God, moved to compassion by the prayers of His 
Mother, suddenly put it in the heart of the syndic, namely, 
Buonaguida, to rise and speak as follows. Now he spake in so 
loud a voice that he was heard by those citizens who were with- 
out in the Piazza di S. Cristofano. ' As you Signori of Siena 
know, we have prayed the protection of King Manfred ; now 
it appears to me that we should give ourselves, our goods and 
our persons, the city and the contado to the Queen of Life 
Eternal ; that is, to our Lady Mother the Virgin Mary. To 
make this gift, may it please you all to bear me company.' 

" As soon as he had said these words, Buonaguida stripped 
himself to his shirt, and barefooted and bareheaded, with a 
rope around his neck, came forth into the presence of all 



POLITICAL SIENA 87 

those citizens, and in his shirt betook himself toward the 
Duomo. And all the people who were there followed him ; 
and those whom he met upon his way went with him ; and 
for the most part they were barefooted and without their 
cloaks, and no man had anything upon his head. And he 
went barefooted, repeating over and over : ' Glorious Virgin 
Mary, Queen of Heaven, aid us in our great need, that we 
may be delivered out of the hand of our enemies the Floren- 
tines — these lions who wish to devour us.' And all the people 
said : ' Madonna, Queen of Heaven, we entreat thy compas- 
sion.' And so they reached the Duomo. 

" And Misser the Bishop went through the Duomo in pro- 
cession. At the high altar, before our Lady, he began to sing 
Te Deum Laudainus in a loud voice. And as he began 
Buonaguida reached the door of the Duomo, with the people 
following him, and commenced to cry with a loud voice, 
' Misericordia ' — the said Buonaguida and all the people — 
' Misericordia.^ At which cry Misser the Bishop turned him- 
self about with all the clergy and came to meet the said 
Buonaguida. When they were comeitogether each man made 
reverence, and Buonaguida fell upon his face upon the ground. 
Misser the Bishop raised him up and gave him the kiss of 
peace; and so all those citizens kissed one another on the 
mouth. And this was at the lowest part of the choir of the 
Duomo. 

" Then, holding one another by the hand, Misser the Bishop 
and Buonaguida went to the altar before our Mother the 
Virgin Mary, and kneeled down with great crying and con- 
tinual tears. This Buonaguida remained stretched out upon 
the ground, and all the people and women with very great weep- 
ing and sobbing waited for the space of a quarter of an hour. 
Then Buonaguida alone raised himself upon his feet and stood 
erect before our Mother the Virgin Mary, and spake many wise 
and discreet words, among which were these : ' Gracious 
Virgin, Queen of Heaven, Mother of Sinners, to thee I, a 
miserable sinner, give, grant, and recommend this city and the 
contado of Siena. And I pray thee. Mother of Heaven, that 



88 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

thou wilt be pleased to accept it, although to one so powerful 
as thou art it is but a little gift. And likewise I pray and 
supplicate thee to guard, free, and defend our city from the 
hands of our enemies, the Florentines, and from whosoever 
may desire to injure us or to bring upon us anguish and 
destruction.^ 

" These words being said, Misser the Bishop ascended into 
the pulpit and preached a very beautiful sermon, teaching the 
people of unity and exhorting them to love one another, to 
forgive those who had done them wrong, and to confess and 
communicate. And he entreated them to unite to place this 
city and their persons under the protection of the glorious 
Virgin Mary, and to go with him and with his clergy in 
procession. 

" And in this procession, before them all, was carried the 
carven crucifix which stands in the Duomo, above the altar of 
S. Jacomo Interciso, beside the campanile.^ Next followed 
all the monks and friars, and then came a canopy, and under 
the canopy was our Mother the Virgin Mary. Hard by was 
Misser the Bishop, and he was barefooted, and at his side was 
Buonaguida in his shirt and with a rope about his neck, as you 
have heard. Then followed all the canons of the Duomo, 
barefooted and bareheaded. They went singing holy psalms 
and litanies and prayers. And behind them came all the 
people, barefooted and uncovered, and all the women bare- 
footed, and many with their hair dishevelled . . . saying 
Paternosters and Ave Marias and other prayers. . . . 

" So they went in procession even to S. Cristofano and into 
the Campo, and returned to the Duomo, where they remained 
to confess and to receive the Sacrament, and to make peace 
one with another. And he who was the most injured sought 
out his enemy to make with him perfect and good accord. . . . 

" Now these things befell on Thursday, the 2nd day of Sep- 
tember. And nearly all night long the people thronged to 

* The crucifix is said to be that which is to-day over the altar of the first 
chapel in the north transept. Heywood and Olcott, "Guide to Siena" 
(Torrini), p. 241. 



POLITICAL SIENA 89 

confess and to make peace one with another. . . . And 
when morning was come the Twenty-Four who ruled and 
governed Siena sent three criers — into every Terzo one — 
proclaiming and crying : * Valorous citizens, make ready ! 
Arm yourselves ! Take your perfect armour ; and let each 
man in the name of our Mother the Virgin Mary follow his 
proper banner, ever recommending himself to God and to 
His Mother/ 

"And hardly was the proclamation finished when all the 
citizens flew to arms. The father did not wait for the son, 
nor one brother for another; and so they went toward the 
Porta San Viene,^ And thither came all the standard-bearers. 
The first was that of San Martino, first for reverence for the 
Saint, and also because that Terzo was near to the gate. The 
second was that of the City, with a very great army of people 
and well equipped. The third was the royal banner of 
Camollia, which represented the mantle of our Mother the 
Virgin Mary, and was all white and shining, fair and pure. 
Behind that banner came a great multitude of people, citizens, 
foot-soldiers, and horsemen; and with this company were 
many priests and friars, and some with weapons and some 
without, to aid and comfort the troops ; and all were of good 
will, of one mind, and of one purpose, and well disposed 
against our enemies the Florentines, who with such vehemence 
had demanded things unrighteous and contrary to reason. 

' ' Now, all the men having gone forth, those devout women 
who remained in Siena, together with Misser the Bishop and 
the clergy, commenced betimes on Friday morning a solemn 
procession with all the relics which were in the Duomo and 
in all the churches of Siena. . . . Thus they went all Friday, 
and all that day they fasted. When even was come they 
returned to the Duomo, and there they all knelt, and so 
remained while Misser the Bishop said litanies, with many 
prayers to the honour and glory of God and of His and our 
Mother. . . . 

" And now we have told of Misser the Bishop, our spiritual 
* /.^., Porta Pispini. 



90 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

father, and of the devout citizens and women, how they 
besought God and His Mother, Saint Mary, to give victory 
to the city of Siena and to its people, we will speak of the 
ordered legions of the army. 

" The day commenced to break ; and it was that blessed 
day, Friday, the 3rd of September, in the year aforesaid ; so 
being drawn up in battle array they began their march towards 
the Bozzone. Ever the squadrons kept close together, that of 
the Captain of the Commune of Siena and that of Messer the 
Count Giordano. . . .^ All went calling on the name of our 
Lord God and of his Mother the Virgin Mary, and to her they 
ever commended themselves, beseeching her to give them 
help and strength and courage and power against these 
wicked and perfidious Florentines. Thus praying they came 
to the foot of a hill which is called Poggio de' Ripoli, which 
hill was over against the camp of the Florentines." 

That night the Sienese watched and prayed, and in the 
darkness there were seen over the Sienese camp as it were the 
mantle of the Blessed Virgin Mary for a sign of her protec- 
tion. The battle broke with the daylight, and resulted, as we 
know, in the complete victory of the Sienese and their German 
allies — a victory they owed in large part to the Florentine 
Ghibelline, Bocca degli Abati, "that traitor Messer Bocca 
degU Abati," as Villani calls him, who struck Jacopo della 
Narda, who bore the Florentine standard, with his sword and 
cut off the hand with which he held the standard, and killed 
him. " And this done," Villani tells us, " the horsemen and 
people beholding the standard fallen, and that there were 
traitors among them, and that they were so strongly assailed 
by the Germans, in a short time were put to flight. . . . Thus 
was abased the proud arrogance of the ungrateful and proud 
people of Florence." " It was astonishing to see," writes the 
Sienese chronicler, " the great butchery that they made of 
those dogs of Florentines. . . . And the slaughter ever in- 

^ The Chronicle says little of the Germans, yet it was in a large 
degree to them and to the treason of Bocca degli Abati that the Sienese 
owed their victory. 



POLITICAL SIENA 91 

creased, and so furious was the press that if one fell to earth 
he might by no means regain his feet again, but was trampled 
to death." 

The account of dead and wounded varies. The Sienese 
tell us 10,000 were slain, and 20,000 were taken. Villani 
says 2,500 fell and 1,500 were captured. It is a matter of 
little consequence. Siena had won, and by her victory 
had once more raised the Ghibelline cause in Tuscany; her 
contado was hers to take, Florence itself was at her mercy. 

Her triumph was shortlived. With incredible vacillation 
and weakness she allowed one strong man in the Council at 
Empoli that followed the battle to force her to spare Florence, 
which, if she had had a statesman worthy of the name, or a 
tradition worth following, would have been razed to the ground. 
Her opportunity had come, but she did not dare to seize it. 
She spared Florence, and in less than ten years the lily 
blossomed amid her ruin. She claimed dominion, and 
having too often failed in war, now that the Germans had 
given her victory she proved unworthy of it. Montaperto 
was but the splendid herald of an end too little glorious. 

The battle of Montaperto ensured the immediate triumph 
of Ghibellinism throughout Tuscany; from every city the 
Guelfs were expelled, even from Lucca, and so far as Siena was 
concerned the treaty signed in November compelled Florence 
to renounce all her claims to Montalcino, Montepulciano, 
Campiglia, Staggia, and Poggibonsi, which Siena secured for 
herself. Her triumph, as I have said, like the triumph of 
Ghibellinism generally, was but shortlived. In 1261, and again 
in 1262, the Pope excommunicated her, and the withdrawal of 
papal patronage, though only partial, was a great and a shrewd 
blow at her predominance. Misfortunes were showered upon 
her. In 1266 Manfred was killed at Benevento; in 1268 
Corradino, the last of the Hohenstaufen, was taken at 
Tagliacozzo and executed in Naples. The Ghibelline cause 
was dead; the battle of Colle in the following year, when 
Florence avenged Montaperto, was but its funeral ; and when 
Henry VII, Dante's Emperor, entered Italy in 13 10 it was but 



92 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

its ghost that walked. That ghost, however, Siena was 
unable to greet. After Colle — was it to save her banks ? 
— she had become Guelf, thus riveting the chains Florence 
had put upon her ; while for the admirable government of 
the Twenty-Four she substituted the oligarchy of the Nine in 
its many forms. The rest of her political history is a long 
decadence,^ helped on by poverty, plague, and the ever-growing 
domination of the Republic of Florence. What she achieved 
in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was not political but 
artistic, and as such we shall consider it. When at long last 
she fell actually into the hands of Grand-Duke Cosimo she was 
helplessly paralyzed, and all her protest was an hysterical flight, 
an almost painless weeping, 

* See note 7, p. 326. 



VIII 

SIENA 

THE PALAZZO PUBBLICO 

WHAT the Piazza Signoria is to Florence, that, and 
something more, the Piazza del Campo is to Siena : 
it is at once the most beautiful and the most characteristic 
thing in the city. However one approaches it — and since it is 
set at the junction of the three hills on which Siena lies there 
are many ways of approach — it is always suddenly, with surprise 
one looks across that vast and beautiful space shaped like an 
open fan, enclosed on all sides by palaces, and radiating as it 
were from what one is often tempted, there at least, to pro- 
claim the most beautiful palace in Tuscany, the Palazzo 
Pubblico, with its marvellous bell-tower soaring so adven- 
turously, so confidently into the blue sky. 

This piazza so spacious in form, so strange in its colour and 
loveliness, is, as it always has been, the heart of Siena. For 
work or for play, for council or for pleasure, in time of foreign 
war or civil riot, here the Sienese have always assembled. It 
was the market-place, the true piazza, the universal meeting- 
place of the city. But to-day it is almost deserted. One by 
one it has lost its uses till now but one remains to it : it is still 
a playground when, in August, on the feast of the Assumption 
of the Blessed Virgin, the Palio is run there over the smooth 
bricks round the central space enclosed by the great pavement. 
Then, indeed, one may see the Piazza in all its glory, almost 
as it must have been when, as Boccaccio tells us, Dante 
Alighieri "lay with his breast upon a bench" outside one of the 

93 



94 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

little shops — it was an apothecary's — reading an ancient book 
which had just been placed in his hand, and heard nothing of 
the great tournament that "was begun and carried through 
there," as now, with *'a mighty din . . . and dances of fair 
ladies and sundry sports of youth." 

But the Piazza is older far than Dante, as is the Palio. It 
was here on the day of our Lady of August, in 1224, after the 
fall of Grosseto, that " the Sienese for joy of the victory held 
high festival and lighted bonfires and closed the shops," while 
in 1260, after the Ghibelline victory of Montaperto, the 
men of Montalcino made there their submission before the 
carroccio^ and were "accepted as subjects of the Magnificent 
Commune of Siena." And it is Dante himself who shows us 
the proud Provenzano Salvani there begging for alms to 
ransom his friend — 

"... Per trovar 1' amico suo di pena." 

There, too, later were set up the gambling booths " walled 
with branches," while in May, 1425, S. Bernardino preached 
there in the presence of the Signoria to a congregation of 
some forty thousand persons. And when Siena was dying it 
was there were held those splendid tournaments and jousts 
that were in fact her funeral games. 

Nor is it only of such peaceful scenes as these that the 
Piazza has been a witness. It has seen much bloodshed and 
infinite cruelty. To name but two occasions : in October, 
1285, the Sienese mob lynched five poor wretches there, and 
hanged other fifty-six " between Arbia and Bozzone " — this in 
the Guelf and Ghibelline quarrel. But even so short a time 
ago as the year 1799 nineteen Jews, men and women, were 
burned alive there at the suggestion of certain Aretine priests, 
and with the help of Napoleon's Tree of Liberty that had been 
set up before the Fonte Gaia a few months before. 

But always, first and last, the Piazza was the market-place 
of the city ; it began as just that, and it only ceased to fulfil 
this function in the year 1884. 

Thus the Piazza del Campo was the heart of Siena in which 



SIENA—THE PALAZZO PUBBLICO 95 

the whole life of the city, civil and religious, in war and in 
peace, was gathered and expressed : it is a heart that has 
almost ceased to beat. 

A quietness but seldom broken now fills the Piazza with an 
exquisite peace. It is the only silent place, I think, in a city 
full of little noises beyond any other in Tuscany : the clang of 
metal on metal, the hammers of the coppersmiths that wake you 
so early, the plaintive cries high up among the old houses of 
innumerable swallows, the shouts of hawkers, the shrill voices of 
children, the songs and laughter and endless loud, free talk of a 
Latin people not yet dominated by the stupefying thunder of 
machines. And so to pass from any one of the narrow, echoing 
streets of the city into this beautiful desert is always to be 
suddenly alone — alone, and yet not alone, for out of this silence, 
actually golden for once where the sun seems to be enthroned, 
comes the voice of old Siena telling her wonderful tale. 

It is with that tragedy in your heart that you turn at last to 
the Palazzo Pubblico. It is a building of the thirteenth and 
early fourteenth centuries, added to in the fifteenth and again 
in the seventeenth, and its material is a beautiful and rich- 
coloured brick relieved in the window shafts by white marble. 
It is the first two stories of the central building which belong 
to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the upper story 
and the two wings being additions. Decorated with the 
Balzana, the black and white shield of Siena, in the midst of 
y the facade are the arms of Grand- Duke Cosimo, whose lord- 
^ship was the end of Siena as a free republic. Above is the 
[beautiful m-onogram of Christ, set there by S. Bernardino; 
while over the door to the right is a statue, very small, of 
S. Ansano, a patron of the city, since he converted it in the 
fourth century, and beneath, on either side of the Lion of the 
People, the Wolf of Rome, which we find again on a pillar 
close by, marking the door as that of the Governors of the 
Republic as against that of the Podesta. 

On the other side of the Palace, to the left of the main 
palace, is a building like a fine portico — in fact, a chapel — the 
Cappella della Piazza, set up by the Commune in fulfilment of 



96 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

a vow made in the Black Death of 1348, in which some eighty 
thousand persons perished, and from which Siena never really 
recovered. Begun in 1352, it was finished, not easily, in 1376. 
About a century later, however, Antonio Federighi altered it, 
adding the whole of the upper structure with the frieze. The 
statues of the Apostles, only six of which were ever executed, 
are work, however, of the earlier time, and in their poverty of 
execution serve to remind us into what a state of decadence 
the plague had thrown the city. 

Above the chapel soars the Torre, which was begun ten years 
before the Black Death, and was still unfinished when that 
awful pestilence depopulated the city. Begun by Minuccio 
and Francesco di Rinaldo of Perugia, it was continued by 
Agostino di Giovanni, while Lippo Memmi, the brother-in-law 
of Simone Martini, is said to have designed the crown. 

There is something in the Torre del Mangia^ that is 
peculiarly Sienese. Whereas in looking at Giotto's tower 
in Florence, like a tall lily beside the Duomo, we do in fact 
" consider the lilies of the field," their candid beauty and 
humility, here we are reminded of something fearless, daring, 
and adventurous, as though into this one perfectly expressive 
thing the very soul of Siena had passed — that soul which, 
mystical as it was beyond that of any other Tuscan city, was 
so often boastful too and unstable, a little hysterical in its 
strange spiritual loveliness, so that it too easily came to naught. 
Something of all this we find almost everywhere in the city, 
and especially perhaps in the great unfulfilled boast of the 
Duomo, but nowhere so subtilely and completely expressed as 
in this rose-coloured tower soaring over the roofs of Siena. 

It is at the other extremity of the fagade, by the second 
door, that one enters the ground floor of the Palace. Within are 
the remains of fourteenth-century frescoes, and on the ceiling, 
more than that, a fine figure of our Lord among Cherubim, 
surrounded by the four Evangelists, from the hand of Bartolo 
di Fredi. Leaving this threshold, one is led by the custode 

^ It is probably so called on account of the mechanical figure which used 
to strike the bells at the summit. 



SIENA— THE PALAZZO PUBBLICO 97 

through various rooms. One sees a fresco of the Resurrection 
by Sodoma — and that will not detain us. Then in the Sala di 
Biccherna,^ where the Provveditori, as the officials who presided 
in Biccherna — the Exchequer, as we might say — were called, 
we see one of the finest works of that fine painter, Sano di 
Pietro — surely his favourite subject, too, the Coronation of the 
Virgin. Painted in 1445, this exquisite fresco, so splendidly 
decorative, so altogether lovely, was contrived by Sano over 
the work of an earlier master, Lippo Vanni, whose signature 
still remains. Nor, as it happens, even so is the work altogether 
Sano's, for Domenico di Bartolo is said to have been the 
master who painted some of the chief figures, obviously not 
from Sano's hand. Close by is another work of Sano's, a 
figure of S. Bernardino of Siena. And just without the 
chamber is another, a damaged fresco of S. Pietro Alessandrino, 
Beato Ambrogio Sansedoni, and Beato Andrea Gallerani. 
And it is to Sano's work again we come — a head of S. Catherine 
— after passing through the Sala dei Matrimoni. 

In the Sala di Anagrafe close by we find the splendid work 
of Vecchietta, a fresco, his finest work here in Siena, of the 
Madonna of Mercy guarding with her cloak the people of 
the city, who kneel about her feet. Above is a world of 
angels, and to the right S. Martin divides his cloak with the 
beggar by the way. 

To reach the upper floors of the Palace it is necessary to 
return to the Piazza and to re enter by the last door, beyond 
that by which we have come out. By this way we come at 
once to the second floor of the Palace. 

Immediately on the right is the great Sala delle Balestre or 
del Mappamondo, which holds Simone Martini's huge fresco 
of the Virgin and Child enthroned under a splendid canopy 
upheld by SS. Peter, Paul, and the two SS. John, in the midst 
of a choir of saints and angels. Before Madonna Siena, her 
own city, kneels in the person of its patron saints, Ansano, 
Vittore, Crescenzio, and Savino, and the whole fresco is 

* See W. Heywood, " A Pictorial Chronicle of Siena " (Siena, 1902), 
p. 16 g/ seq. 
H 



98 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

enclosed in a border of medallions and shields bearing the 
arms of the Commune and people. 

This vast piece is at once like a tapestry and a huge 
miniature. It was painted in 1315, and restored by Simone 
himself, probably in 1320, when he renewed eight of the heads 
of the principal figures : to wit, S. Ansano, the two angels 
offering flowers, S. Crescenzio, S. Catherine, the saintly woman 
opposite to her, and the Virgin and Child. It has in parts 
been restored at various later times, but substantially remains 
the very beautiful work of one of the most delightful of Sienese 
painters, and, indeed, the earliest of his works. 

The mastery that is perhaps only promised in this great 
work has been achieved in the splendid equestrian portrait 
of Guidoriccio da Fogliano by the same artist on the opposite 
wall. It seems to have been finished before it was begun, so 
certain is it of itself and so confident in every gesture are that 
horse and its rider. Guidoriccio, the " Captain of war in 
Siena," is riding out of the Sienese camp to the siege of 
Montemassi. In the background we see one of those Batti- 
folle^ those strange ramparts and towers of wood which in 
those days one constructed when one besieged a town. But 
that is merely a curiosity of archaeology. What strikes us 
most in this splendid work is the immortal gesture of life 
which it expresses as surely as any work by Titian or Velas- 
quez could do. Nor is it without a certain dramatic quality, 
poetical and beautiful — that imposing figure so full of almost 
regal dignity thrown against the dark sky, its irresistible 
advance, its proud gesture of absolute command and certainty. 
And with this, like a true Sienese, Simone has contrived that 
his work should be not merely realistic but perfectly decorated : 
even here, if you will, you have but a pattern of colours on the 
wall, a sudden glance of light, a miraculous gift of the sun. 

Under this portrait hangs the so-called Guido da Siena, a 
Madonna which bears the date 1221. The picture is perhaps 
less genuine than the signature, which has excited numberless 
suspicions. On either side of it are frescoes by Sodoma of 
two of the patrons of Siena — S. Ansano, baptizing the Sienese, 



OF TH£ 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 



SIENA— THE PALAZZO PUBBLICO 99 

and S. Vittore, and the Blessed Bernardo Tolomei, who 
founded the Olivetan congregation. Happily they are among 
his better and more virile works, and do not disgust us in the 
presence of Simone. 

On the long side wall are two almost anonymous battle- 
scenes in monochrome. The finer, to the left, represents 
the victory of the Sienese at Torrita in 1363, when Messer 
Ceccolo degli Orsini of Rome, in command of the Sienese, 
attacked against the orders of the magistrates. The other 
shows us the battle of Poggio Imperiale, near Poggibonsi, 
fought more than a hundred years later, in 1479, when Siena, 
after the failure of the Pazzi conspiracy, sided with the Pope 
and the King of Naples against Florence and Milan, and won 
this victory under the Duke of Calabria. 

Leaving the Sala delle Balestre we pass into the Sala dei 
Nove, the Hall of the Nine, or, as it was later called, the Sala 
della Pace. And here we are in the presence of Ambrogio 
Lorenzetti, whose famous frescoes, completed in 1339, cover 
three of its walls. It is with the results of Good and of Bad 
Government that he deals. The best preserved of these 
works is that opposite the window; unhappily a door cuts 
off a part of its right corner. 

Above, high up on the left, we see a half figure of Wisdom 
hovering, crowned and wearing a veil. In her left hand is a 
red book, in her right she holds a huge balance, whose beam 
rests on the head of Justice, who looks up into the eyes 
of Wisdom as though for inspiration. In the scales to the 
left is a winged angel, who bends to decapitate a kneeHng 
man, and places a crown on the head of one who prays. 
From the scale to the right another angel leans and dips 
one hand into a box held by a kneeling figure, while he 
gives a lance and a sword to another, kneeling too. This 
obscure and confused allegory would appear to express 
distributive Justice inspired by Wisdom dealing out death to 
the wicked and benediction to the good ; while commutative 
Justice aids one with money and another with weapons. It 
matters littl« to us, perhaps, what the meaning may be. We 



100 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

are consoled for our dullness by the delight we feel at that 
figure of Justice, one of the finest efforts of Sienese art. 

But I have not half described the picture. Beneath the 
figure of Justice sits Concord, scarcely less noble, holding in 
her left hand two cords, which are tied around the waists of 
the angels in the scales. One is red, the other white. These 
cords she passes to a small personage near by, who hands them 
on to his neighbour, who does the like, a procession of twenty- 
four persons being thus formed which advances to the vast 
throne on the right whereon is seated the Commune of Siena 
— a splendid figure of a man in middle age, who holds in the 
right hand a sceptre, in the left a seal or disk bearing the 
image of the Blessed Virgin, the Protectress and Liege Lady 
of the city. Above the throne hover. figures of Faith, Hope, 
and Charity, and to its right and left are seated those mar- 
vellous figures of Prudence, Fortitude, Peace, Magnanimity, 
Temperance, and Legal Justice : Peace being indeed, as she is, 
the most lovely of them all. Beneath the throne are the Wolf 
and Romulus and Remus, and armed men on foot and horse- 
back and others offering tribute, and again others bound in 
fetters. The allegory would seem to suggest that if Justicel 
inspired by Wisdom be followed she will induce Concord, I 
which in her turn will lead men to live in fellowship under 
the benign sway of the Commune of Siena, supported by 
Prudence, Fortitude, Peace, and their sisters. 

And this lesson is emphasised in the two frescoes to right 
and left. That on the right shows us the effect of Good 
Government. In the city all is gay and prosperous ; girls 
dance the rigoletto, knights and their fair ladies ride joyfully 
through the streets, while without we see a smiling country- 
side full of happiness, and peasants who bring their produce 
to the city gate. Over all abides Security, with a scroll and a 
gallows. 

On the left wall we see the effects of Bad Government, 
under the monstrous figure of Tyranny, whose left foot rests on 
a goat. Above are Greed, Pride, and Vainglory ; and beside 
him Fraud, Treason, Cruelty, Fury, Division, and War. 



SIENA-~THE PALAZZO PUBBLICO loi 

Beneath, Justice is cast down and bound, while in the city 
murder and rapine walk the streets, and without the fields 
are bare ; and over all abides Fear half- naked, a drawn sword 
in her hand. 

The allegory here is sufficiently obvious. It is a pity that 
the decorative value of these frescoes is not so fine as the 
detail which their didactic purpose demanded. 

To reach the chapel it is necessary first to return to the 
Sala del Mappamondo, out of which it opens. It is for the sake 
of Taddeo Bartoli one comes here, who began to paint in the 
chapel in 1407. The work in the antechapel — those allegorical 
frescoes — was done seven years later. The frescoes in the 
chapel itself consist of the figures of various saints and of 
four scenes from the life of the Blessed Virgin — her Farewell, 
her Death, her Funeral, and her Assumption. In the last, 
which is the best of his works here, we see against the glow 
of the sunset the city of Siena in all her delicate beauty. 

Taddeo di Bartolo was born in 1363. The pupil of a feeble 
master, Bartolo di Fredi, he was at twenty- two years of age 
employed in the Duomo, but his best work in Siena was not 
done till at over forty years of age he began these frescoes, 
and painted in 1409 the great Annunciation now in the Belle 
Arti, and in 14 13 the polyptych of the Osservanza, finishing 
both the latter while he was engaged on the frescoes in the 
chapel and antechapel here in the Palazzo Pubblico. Between 
his employment in 1385 in the Duomo and his work here, 
begun in 1407, he had been something of a traveller. In 
1390 he was in Pisa, in 1393 in Genoa, in 1395 in Pisa again, 
where, indeed, he remained for some years, painting in S. 
Francesco. In 1400 and 1401, however, we find him in 
Montepulciano at work on the Last Judgment in the Duomo 
there, where he contrived his great reredos, consisting of the 
Annunciation, the Coronation, and the Assumption of the 
Blessed Virgin. In 1403 he went to Perugia, after briefly 
visiting Siena, where he worked in S. Francesco and S. 
Agostino, and, according to Vasari, in S. Domenico, where 
he painted some frescoes of the life of S. Catherine. He had, 



102 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

therefore, seen something of the world and of the art of 
Tuscany when, in 1405, he returned to his native city ; and 
two years later, as we have seen, began to work in the chapel 
of the Palazzo Pubblico. 

Passing from the chapel through the Sala dei Cardinah, 
where hang a panel of the Virgin and Child with Angels by 
Cozzarelli, dated 1484, and two small pictures of scenes in 
the life of S. Bernardino by Vecchietta, we come to the Sala 
della Balia, which Spinello Aretino in his old age, with the 
assistance of his son, painted with scenes from the life of 
the Sienese Pope, Alexander III. It was Caterino Corsino, 
Operaio of the Duomo of Siena, who in 1404 persuaded 
Spinello Aretino to forsake Arezzo and to come to Siena to 
work there. The work of foreign artists is so rare in Siena 
that we cannot but notice these frescoes. Spinello and his 
son Parri arrived in Siena in October, 1404, and laboured 
there till the end of the summer of 1405. For eleven months 
they worked in the Duomo, but nothing is left to us of all 
their labour. They returned to Florence, but two years later, 
in March, 1407-8, they returned to Siena to paint these 
frescoes of the Sala di Balia, in company with Martino di 
Bartolommeo, who worked on the ceiling. 

Spinello's frescoes, in painting which he was doubtless 
much assisted by his son, are concerned really with the heroic 
story of the Venetian campaign against Frederick Barbarossa : 
in this campaign legend assigns to Orlando Bandinelli, later 
Pope Alexander III, an heroic share. So successful are these 
frescoes in composition, colour, and movement that they may 
stand as the masterpiece of a man who was not the least 
among the better followers of Giotto. And, in fact, where 
else in work of that time shall we find the living splendour of 
the scene representing a naval fight, or the grace of that in 
which the Pope arms the Doge surrounded by his guard, or 
the triumphant joy of that in which we see the victorious 
Pope, his mule led by the humbled Emperor ? 

From the Sala di Balia we enter a corridor, where at the 
end is that unique thing, a fresco by Neroccio-r-of the Virgin 



^ 








1 '^ 


hH 


■k^ 




n 



Palazzo Piibhlioo, Sietta 
DETAIL OF FRESCO IN SALA DELLA I'ACE 



/ OF THE 

; tiWiVERSITY 

\ OF 

"^ .5^ IFOR] 



SIENA— THE PALAZZO PUBBLICO 103 

and Child enthroned. Hence we climb to the top floor of 
the Palace, where after all the. best of all awaits us — not 
the great ruined fresco of the Virgin and Child there by 
Ambrogio Lorenzetti, but the very world itself, the vast 
contado of Siena, hill and valley and desert stretching away 
to where, in the evening mist, maybe, the pure, serene 
outline of Mont' Amiata rises into the sky on the verge 
of the Patrimony, on the confines of Umbria, on the road to 
Rome. He who has once seen that majesty will never forget 
it. It seems to seal every one of the days one spends in 
Siena, or in the little cities to the south that were once her 
vassals. From here you may count them all : only you will 
not. You will look only at that mountain whose crest, shaped 
like the crescent moon, bears as of right the symbol of Mary, 
and in silence you will await the sunset. And as the bells 
once more, as of old, ring the Angelus, you will remind your- 
self, perhaps after many days of forgetfulness, of those things 
which alone have any reality — 

"Ave Maria, gratia plena, 
Dominus tecum : 
Benedicta tu in mulieribus, 
Et benedictus fructus ventris tui 
Jesus. 

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, 
Ora pro nobis peccatoribus, 
Nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. 
Amen." 



IX 

SIENA 

CATHEDRAL GROUP 

THE Piazza del Duomo of Siena differs both from that 
of Florence and from that of Pisa, for it is neither 
the centre of the life of the city like the former, nor a thing 
apart, a mere or a meadow of faery like the latter ; yet it has 
the silence of Pisa and the domination of Florence. Set on 
what may well be the highest point of the triune hill on which 
Siena stands, and which is made one in the Piazza del Campo, 
the Cathedral of S. Maria Assunta dominates the whole city, 
casting its shadow over it at sunrise and at sunset ; yet it is 
withdrawn, surrounded by silence, and separate altogether 
from those narrow streets so full of noise and business, in 
which, nevertheless, everywhere its presence may be felt. It 
is, in fact, and in a more particular sense than in any other 
cathedral in the world, the votive shrine erected by the people of 
Siena to their guardian and liege lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

It is a citadel, too, in which long and long ago Siena placed 
all her hope, her pride, and her love. However you may 
come to it, whether by the Via di Citta and the Via del 
Capitano from the Campo, or by the Via del Fosso di S. 
Ansano from the Porta Laterina, or by the steps or by the 
Via del Poggiolo from the Piazza di S. Giovanni, you must 
go up, you must climb to that sunlit piazza which surrounds 
this shrine always with so mysteriously dazzling a space of 
silence. 

And this quietness, so grateful to us of the modern world, 

104 



SIENA— CATHEDRAL GROUP 105 

who live perforce continually in a kind of hideous and useless 
noise, has the colour of fire and of gold — the whiteness of fire, 
the golden splendour of gold. 

As you come into the Piazza up the steps from the Piazza 
di S. Giovanni, beside you on your right stretches the whole 
length of the nave of the Cathedral, on your left rises the 
great palace of the Opera ; beside it opens a long piazza, set 
here and there with numerous arches of white marble that 
look like rains. Before you, closing another larger piazza, 
rises the golden white Ospedale di S. Maria della Scala, and 
everywhere around you is a vast and beautiful space full of 
the sun. 

All this has in it something of a miracle. It is only 
when, having crossed that sunlit space, you turn before the 
Ospedale to face the Cathedral, that you are aware of a sudden 
disappointment. 

In so many of the cathedrals of Italy the fagade has little or 
no relation to the church which lies behind it ; and here in 
Siena it might seem we have the most flagrant example of this 
fault. The fagade of the Duomo of Orvieto, it is true, errs 
in the same way, though not so manifestly, for there at least 
the noble central door, so much larger than its fellows on 
either side, emphasises the importance of the nave over the 
aisles, while here the three doors are of equal height. But this 
is by no means the only cause of Siena's inferiority. As a 
fagade pure and simple, that of Orvieto is noble and lovely 
in design, in decoration, and in colour. That of Siena is 
feeble in design, it suffers from too much decoration, and 
this of a mean sort; and who but a fanatic can admire its 
colour ? It fails everywhere in comparison with the work of 
Orvieto — it fails in order and in beauty. And if in its com- 
pleteness it may not be compared with its sister at Orvieto, 
it fails, too, in its detail. At Orvieto sculpture has, with very 
happy effect, been more sparingly used, but what there is, is 
of a better and nobler kind. And this was the result of the 
decline of the Pisan school. The only really satisfactory 
church builders in Italy before the fifteenth century, the Pisans, 



io6 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

possessed, too, the only school of sculpture. When Lorenzo 
del Maitano, the pupil of Giovanni Pisano, designed the 
fagade of Orvieto, the Pisan influence was still living ; he 
worked mainly in relief. But when fifty years later, perhaps 
under French influence, the Pisan tradition was waning, the 
fagade of Siena was decorated not in relief, but with a host of 
figures whose effect, so splendid in the grey stone of Chartres, 
is almost grotesque in the dazzling marble of Siena. Nor is 
this all. At Orvieto we find the fagade clothed with mosaic, 
while at Siena only the gables have any colour. Thus struc- 
turally, in design also, and in colour it is a failure, lacking 
in a due sense of proportion, in order, and in repose, so that 
what effectiveness it has — and no one can deny it a certain 
element of surprise, and even wonder — soon wearies us^ till we 
come to disregard it altogether as a mere ineffectual boast, 
a thing without sincerity or joy, set for pride before the church 
of Madonna. And since the fagade has, in fact, so little 
relation to the church it hides, let us consider that church 
without it. 

This hill on which the Cathedral stands, according to tradi- 
tion, has always been sacred to some deity. And even as it 
is said that on the holy island of Thorney, where our Abbey 
now stands in Westminster, there was once a temple of Apollo, 
so here, where now rises this church of the Madonna Assunta, 
there once stood a temple to Minerva. Pecci, the old Sienese 
historian, tells us that the first Christian building was erected 
here in the eighth or ninth century, when it became the centre 
of religion in Siena, for the earlier Cathedral had stood in 
Castelvecchio. In the twelfth century, too, we hear that the 
Sienese Pope, Alexander III, consecrated the second church 
upon this hill. But the building we now see belongs to the 
thirteenth century. 

It was begun, according to Malavolti, in 1245, and in the 
following year we have documentary evidence that money was 
being spent on it. In 1257 we know that a certain monk of 
S. Galgano, a Cistercian, was Operaio here, and two years later 
was succeeded by another monk of the same monastery, a 



^.' 






MKNA : DUOMO — INTERIOR 



SIENA— CATHEDRAL GROUP 107 

certain Melano. He repaired the work of his predecessors, 
and added to it, and in 1266 Niccola Pisano came to Siena to 
set up within its walls his great pulpit. The Cathedral, shorter 
than the building we see by two bays, was finished, with the 
exception of the fa9ade and the present choir, in the following 
year. 

In those very years almost our Abbey of Westminster was 
built by Henry HI. It was in 1220 that he began the new 
Lady chapel, and a little later set about rebuilding the whole 
church. In 1260, two years after the dedication of the 
Cathedral of Siena, Westminster Abbey was consecrated. So 
did the Sienese, and so the English. 

But it is ill comparing work so essentially different. If we 
may not name the Cathedral of Siena in the same breath with 
the Abbey, it is not only because the Italians were poor at 
construction, and expressed themselves less perfectly in stone ; 
it is because one may not compare two essentially different 
things. The Italians were poor at construction : let us admit 
it. Here in Siena, as elsewhere, we read of the repairs which 
had to be made in the fabric owing to the lack of constructive 
skill. But it is impossible to deny that they were able to 
express themselves perfectly in Architecture as in Literature, 
Sculpture, and Painting. Only when we consider any work of 
art it is necessary to remember the intention of the artist and 
the demands his material made upon him ; and the latter is 
not less, but perhaps more, important than the former. 

The aim of every Latin builder has always been to express 
light and space; this was a condition of his noble climate, 
and it was his priceless inheritance from the Romans. For 
this purpose he had at hand two materials — brick and marble. 
So long as the Roman tradition was indeed living in the 
hearts of men, so long as the round arch endured, space and 
light were the natural aims of a builder, space everywhere, and 
light where light was to be had. But when the northern soul 
was born where light, serene, pure, and spacious light, was 
not to be had at all, or to be had only rarely ; where marble 
was not to be found, but where stone might be won from the 



io8 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

always far-away hills, a new aim, a new intention was born 
into the world. The Gothic style, as we loosely call it, the 
pointed style, the style that has as its essentials height and 
vast traceried and coloured windows, was born in the tie de 
France. It disregarded space, for space was everywhere about 
it, and light — the light of Italy — was not to be had. What 
was needed in the great plains of Northern Europe, where 
there are no mountains, was height and the effect of height — 
the dim, far-away arches, the steep roofs, the vast height and 
the effect of height we find in a Gothic church, and the glory 
of light that takes its fire and colour, not from the pale sky, 
but from the burning glass of the tall, narrow windows. Out 
of these needs was born the Gothic style. 

Now conceive this emotion, this idea, this style gradually 
brought to the consciousness of the South, of Italy. The 
result could not but be a disaster. Out of Lombardy there 
are no plains in Italy; everywhere there are mountains. 
Height was not needed. There is no height, there never 
has been, in the buildings of Rome, because when we lift 
up our eyes we may see the hills ; but consider what London 
has become without the effect of it ; nay, consider what 
beauty London must have held when she had it, as she once 
had, when, in fact, she was a Gothic city. 

But this Gothic emotion, so admirable and so wonderfully 
lovely in its result in the North, was not to be denied in the 
South either, where, in fact, it was a disaster. There, where 
everywhere there was height and colour and outline, one 
began to forsake the old manner for this new desire, which, 
there, can have been nothing more than an affectation and a^ 
farce. And to complicate what was already far from easy 
to understand or to feel in the sun — indeed, the Italian never 
did understand the principles of Gothic construction — the 
builder had to achieve his end, not with the grey stone of the 
North, so full of harmony with the grey sky there and the long 
winter, but with warm brick or with marble. So that if his aim 
was the same as that of the builders of Chartres or Amiens 
or Westminster, he had to achieve it with a dazzling white 



SIENA— CATHEDRAL GROUP 109 

or black or rosy marble that reflected the southern light, 
already overpowering, and on which every crocket and tracery 
spread a lacework of black shadows. The result was a fore- 
gone failure — in fact, the aim was never achieved save at 
Milan, where the vast plains of Lombardy help to hide the 
grotesque effect as of a bride cake that the sun and the marble 
mountains had forced a Gothic cathedral to become in the 
south. Italian architecture only came to its own again when 
the Renaissance returned to Rome with the round arch. 

If, then, one is disappointed — and who is not disappointed? — 
in the front of the Cathedral of Siena, it is because it is 
built with much of the intention of Gothic architecture, with 
more of that intention than is to be found in any other 
cathedral, I think, south of the Apennines, with more, 
certainly, than is discernible at Florence, where the effect is 
very noble indeed, and, in fact, almost successful. 

Who the architect may have been who designed this church 
we shall never know. At any rate he was very far from under- 
standing the art of the French builders. As I have said, his 
constructive ability was as weak as was that of most Italian 
builders of his time, and his love of decoration, of the rich 
effect of different-coloured marbles, was altogether at variance 
with the style in which he had chosen or was compelled to 
work. Thus the church, completed in 1267, was rather 
astonishing than lovely, rather a tour de force than a work 
of art. 

That the work was a failure seems to have been realized 
by the Sienese within fifty years of its achievement. The 
Cathedral of Florence promised to be not only larger, but 
more beautiful than theirs; and Orvieto, too, was already 
at work. They began by adding here and there to the 
church. They pulled down the old baptistery which stood 
to the right of the fagade, and in 13 15 built the new 
baptistery we know to the east, and beneath the Duomo. At 
the same time they began a choir above the bapistery, whose 
roof served as floor for it. But before they had gone far with 
the work, in 1322 it was pronounced to be unstable by 



no SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Lorenzo del Maitano, the great Sienese who was Operaio 
at Orvieto. It was then proposed to build a new church, 
"beautiful, large, and splendid, fine in its proportions of 
length, height, and breadth, and in all its parts." This scheme, 
as may be imagined, was strongly opposed by those who 
wished only to add to the old church. Their party was in 
power, and remained in power till 1339, when Maitano's scheme 
was at last adopted, and a vast church planned, of which the 
old building — the present church — was to form the transepts. 
Lando di Pietro, the Sienese architect, then in the employ- 
ment of King Robert of Naples, was recalled, and the first 
stone of the great new nave was laid in February, 1340. 

But the work then begun soon proved beyond the power or 
the wealth of Siena, for it soon proved to be impossible to use 
the old church at all. It was necessary to build this vast 
temple entirely anew from the foundations. The work pro- 
ceeded apace even in spite of the Plague of 1348. But it 
was that which killed it at last, for it half-depopulated Siena. 
The merchants were ruined, the city divided against itself, the 
energies which should have gone to the building of the 
Cathedral were absorbed by the struggle for existence or 
the petty and bitter politics of the factions. Then it was 
discovered that certain fatal defects in construction were 
already declaring themselves in what had been begun of the 
new building. Florentine architects were called in. They 
found the piers too light for the vast vaults, and advised a 
reconstruction. When this was known the Operaio, the 
Sienese Domenico d' Agostino, advised that the old Cathedral 
should be allowed to remain, and that the choir above S. 
Giovanni should be finished; and though he by no means 
abandoned hope of finishing the new Cathedral, he asserted 
that it would take a hundred years to build. 

In 1357 the unsafe parts of the new building were removed. 
The great days of Siena were over, and the new church was 
then tacitly abandoned. 

Meanwhile work proceeded on the old Cathedral. In 1370 
the choir was finished, and in the same year the piazza before 



SIENA— CATHEDRAL GROUP in 

the church was enlarged by the removal of the loggia of the 
Bishop's palace.^ In 1374 it was decided to lengthen the 
nave by two bays, and these were finished in 1377, when 
Bartolommeo di Tomme and other sculptors began to work 
on the facade. By 1380 or 1381 the fagade, which had been 
inspired by the greatest work of the Sienese sculptor, Lorenzo 
del Maitano, at Orvieto, was finished. The beautiful eastern 
facade was then taken in hand, and built after a design by 
Giacomo di Mino di Neri del PelUciaio. 

A hundred years later Giovanni di Stefano built the small 
baptistery in the north transept. In 1495 the Piccolomini 
Library was added, and the only addition made to the 
Cathedral since then is the Cappella del Voto in the south 
transept, which was added by Alexander VII in i66i. 

If one is always disappointed with the fagade of the 
Cathedral, what is one's final impression of the interior ? At 
first certainly you are bewildered and confused by those bands 
of black and white marble which so unfortunately diminish the 
spaciousness of what is, after all, a very spacious building ; 
they halve its height and breadth and rob it of its dignity. 
But when, if ever, you have become accustomed to this 
oddity, you recognise that what charms you in a building full 
of contradictions is that in it which carries out the idea of all 
Latin building, an effect, yes, in spite of every sort of handi- 
cap, an effect of light and space, not so splendid certainly as 
you will find in such masterpieces as the Cathedrals of Pisa 
and Lucca or in the Church of S. Croce in Florence, but light 
and space nevertheless, here where the fundamental feeling is 
rather Romanesque than Gothic, the predominating lines hori- 
zontal rather than perpendicular ; and the decorations of the 
church, mainly of the Renaissance as they are, confirm the 
impression we receive from the building itself. 

But if the Cathedral of Siena as a building pure and simple 
holds its own hardly with its sisters of Pisa, Lucca, and 
Florence, it compares very favourably with any one of them 

» Cf, R. Langton Douglas, " A History of Siena " (Murray, 1902), p. 279 
and App. i. 



112 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

in regard to the treasures it possesses. The very pavement is 
a work of art, one of the most notable in the city, and, indeed, 
unique in Italy. It was the labour of centuries. Begun 
before the close of the fourteenth century, it was still incom- 
plete when the sixteenth was half passed away. Among the 
masters who designed subjects for this extraordinary mosaic 
are found Giovanni di Stefano, Federighi, Domenico di 
Bartoli, Benvenuto di Giovanni, Matteo di Giovanni, Neroccio, 
Cozzarelli, Pintoricchio, Beccafumi, and probably Francesco di 
Giorgio.^ This wonderful pavement is spread like the richest 
of carpets down the length of the nave. 

We come upon the lovely work of Federighi again at the 
very entrance to the nave in two holy-water basins, and on 
that of Neroccio, always so full of charm, in the tomb of 
Bishop Tommaso Piccolomini (1483), in the south aisle, close 
to the door of the Campanile. Beneath are bas-reliefs by 
Urbano da Cortona, another of the "pavement masters," 
representing scenes from the life of the Blessed Virgin. 

Close by is the Cappella del Voto, added, as I have said, in 
1 66 1. The building of this chapel closed the ancient and 
famous Porta del Perdono. It was built as a shrine for the ancient 
Madonna del Voto, " she who hearkened unto the people of 
Siena what time the Florentines were routed at Montaperto," 
and who, according to Mr. Heywood and the Sienese, is still 
full of miracles. She is invoked by the city or the peasants 
of the contado to-day chiefly in the matter of the weather. Mr. 
Heywood ^ recounts from his own experience how the mere 
unveiling of our Lady saved Siena from flood in 1902 when 
Rome was drowned. But a later story I have heard would 
seem to the profane, or at least to a Florentine, to throw some 
doubt on the present efficacy of the Advocata Senensium. 
For it was told me that not long since the whole Senese was 
suffering from drought, and this for so long a time that at last 

^ It is impossible here to enter into the details of this extraordinary and 
detailed work. The reader is referred to the excellent handbook of Mr. 
R. H. Hobart Cust, "The Pavement Masters of Siena." 

* " A Pictorial Chronicle of Siena " (Torrini, Siena, 1902), p. 64. 



SIENA— CATHEDRAL GROUP 113 

the peasants demanded that the Madonna del Voto should be 
unveiled. Their priests besought leave of the Archbishop, 
who shook his head. ^^ Fazienza" says he, '''' pazienza miei 
■figliuoli 1 " Doubtless it is easier to prate of patience in the 
Episcopal Palace of Siena than to ensue it as you watch your 
vines die in the contado. However that may be, the peasants 
sent again to the Archbishop, who, tapping his new aneroid 
barometer, gravely shook his head. " Unveil her if you must," 
says he, " but if you do you will make a fool of your Madonna." 
It was only when at last the glass began to fall that with the 
greatest readiness he gave consent, saying, " Unveil her now if 
you will, for she will certainly hear the cries of her children." 

Now whether or no she has fallen as low as that I am 
ignorant ; but that the Madonna del Voto has played a great 
part in the story of Siena is not to be gainsaid. It was to her 
on the eve of Montaperto, when Siena was in great fear of her 
life, not foreseeing her victory, that Buonaguida the Syndic, 
"stripped to his shirt, barefooted and bareheaded, with a rope 
around his neck, came forth into the presence of all the citi- 
zens, and in his shirt betook himself to the Duomo." There, 
before the Madonna del Voto, in the presence of the Bishop 
and all the people of Siena, he dedicated the city to the 
Blessed Virgin, saying : " Gracious Virgin, Queen of Heaven, 
Mother of Sinners, to thee I, a miserable sinner, give, grant, 
and recommend this city and the contado of Siena. And I 
pray thee, Mother of Heaven, that thou wilt be pleased to 
accept it, although to one so powerful as thou arlt it is but a 
little gift. And likewise I pray ^nd supplicate thee to guard, 
free, and defend our city from the hands of our enemies the 
Florentines, and from whosoever may desire to injure us 
or to bring upon us anguish and destruction." ^ Thus 
Siena was dedicated to the Virgin, and this so wholly and 
entirely that it is said the white and black striped marble of 

' See W. Heywood, ** Palio and Ponte " (Methuen, 1904), p. 31. There 
followed a "very beautiful sermon" from Messer the Bishop, and a pro- 
cession from one church to another. I repeat the facts here for the sake 
of the reader, see supra^ pp. 85 et seq. 

I 



114 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

the Duomo, the Balzana, the black and white banners of the 
Commune, are but emblems of her purity and humility, or of 
those joyful and sorrowful mysteries whereby, as she told 
S. Bridget, "her life was ever divided between happiness and 
grief." ^ 

Four times besides was the city rededicated — in 1483 when 
she was threatened by the exiles, in 1526 before the battle of 
CamoUia, in 1550 when the Spaniards were at hand, and again 
in 1555 when Charles V and Cosimo I were about to put an 
end to her independence. 

In 1260, at the time of the first dedication, the high altar 
still stood beneath the cupola, and over it was set Duccio's 
great Majestas, that, alas ! is now imprisoned in the Opera del 
Duomo. It was not before this marvellous altarpiece, how- 
ever, that Buonaguida knelt, but before the Madonna del Voto, 
then in the Cappella di S. Bonifazio. 

The present high altar was set up in the sixteenth century, 
and in a new place. Upon it now stands Vecchietta's splendid 
bronze tabernacle, while on either side kneel Giovanni di 
Stefano's angels, and below them the lovelier statues of Fran- 
cesco di Giorgio. No praise can be too fine for them. 
Around them, against the columns, is the work of Beccafumi 
in bronze. 

In the right transept we come upon the monument of him 
who built the Cappella del Voto— Alexander VII, Fabio 
Chigi — beside that of another and earlier Sienese Pope, 
Alexander III. 

Turning now to the sacristy, we find there two panels of 
S. Bernardino ; in one, by Sano di Pietro, he is preaching 
before the Palazzo Pubblico. The picture of the Madonna 
is by Pacchiarotto. 

But the finest and most interesting work of art in the 
Cathedral is the pulpit by Niccolb Pisano. He received the 
order for this splendid work on Michaelmas Day, 1265, and, 
thanks to the help of Arnolfo and his son Giovanni and others, 
he was able to begin it on i March, 1266, and to complete it 

» Cf. W. Hey wood, op, cit.f p. 40. 



SIENA— CATHEDRAL GROUP 115 

in November, 1268. The plan is the same as that for the 
pulpit in the Baptistery of Pisa, but the work is richer and 
more clairvoyant. Octagonal in form, it possesses two more 
bas-reliefs than the pulpit of the Pisan baptistery, namely, the 
Massacre of the Innocents and a second scene of the Last 
Judgment. But in every relief we find a more dramatic life 
and an art more naturalistic than in the earlier work. It is a 
masterpiece a little uncertain of itself, perhaps, but full of 
a new promise of joy. The unfortunate addition of the steps 
was made by Riccio at the end of the sixteenth century. 

Close to the pulpit is the Cappella di S. Ansano. Within 
is the magnificent bronze tomb of Bishop Pecci, made in 1426 
by Donatello. It is a triumph of technique, exquisite in 
workmanship and colour, keeping about it too, in spite of the 
worn surface, a sense of calm and repose not always to be 
found in Donatello's monuments. 

The north transept holds nothing of interest, but the 
Cappella di S. Giovanni next to it was built by Giovanni 
di Stefano, and within there is a reliquary containing, as it is 
said, an arm of John Baptist, presented to Siena by Pius II. 
What, however, will no doubt detain us longer is the magni- 
ficent statue of the saint by Donatello. Very close to the 
statues of the same saint, which are now in Venice and 
Berlin, and having much in common with the wonderful 
Magdalen of the Baptistery at Florence, the S. John of Siena 
is an embodiment of that voice crying in the wilderness 
which seems to have haunted Donatello so persistently. On 
either side is a statue of S. Ansano and S. Catherine of 
Alexandria, the one a feeble work by Giovanni di Stefano, the 
other a wonderful but unfinished masterpiece by Neroccio. 
This chapel was the smaller baptistery, and the font is notable : 
its reliefs are the work of Federighi, and are concerned with 
Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden — the garden of the 
Hesperides, it seems, for two labours of Hercules close the 
series. On the walls are frescoes by Pintoricchio and his 
pupils, representing Alberto Aringhieri as a young knight 
keeping vigil, and as a knight of Rhodes. Opposite is the 



ii6 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Birth of the Baptist. The two frescoes over the door are the 
work of Peruzzi. 

The Piccolomini family, one of whose sons, Pius II, gave 
its relic to the chapel of S. Giovanni, has its monument in the 
north aisle at the fourth altar, the framework of which was 
designed by Andrea Bregno (1485). Four of the statues 
which adorn it are said to be from the hand of Michelangelo, 
namely, S. Peter, S. Paul, Pius, and S. Gregory. Fine as they 
are, they but doubtfully come from the hand of the great 
Florentine. 

Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini, who commissioned this 
altar, built also the famous Libreria, close by, to hold the 
manuscripts left him by his uncle, Pius II. The Library is, 
then, really a monument to the great humanist Pope who 
canonized S. Catherine of Siena. The bronze doors were 
made by Antoniolo Ormanni. Over them is a fine fresco by 
Pintoricchio of the Coronation of Cardinal Francesco as 
Pius III. Within are the ten splendid frescoes of the life of 
Pius II by Pintoricchio. 

Pius II was born in 1405. He was an adventurer of fine 
character, but an adventurer. He had no great convictions, 
but, unlike so many who are without them, he was capable of 
learning from experience. And then, if he was v^qthout con- 
victions, he was also without prejudices. He made the most 
of life in no vulgar way, but with a success that proves his 
superiority. He was not one to mould the world, but to use 
it and to enjoy it nobly. His early life is said to have been 
disorderly. He wrote much sensuous and even licentious 
verse, and a novel that might have come from the hand of 
Boccaccio in a moment of ennui. At twenty-six he became 
secretary to the Bishop of Fermo at the Council of Basle. 
There he made his reputation, and in the years between 1432 
and 1435 he was employed on missions in England, Scotland, 
and Germany. He then followed Frederic III, reformed his 
life, took Orders, reconciled himself to the Pope, and was 
created Bishop of Trieste, and, returning to Italy in 1456, he 
became Cardinal of Siena. On the death of Calixtus III, two 



SIENA-~CATHEDRAL GROUP 117 

years later, he was elected Pope, and, in reference to his name 
of ^neas, took the title of Pius II. His reign was dis- 
appointing ; it revealed his want of conviction and his oppor- 
tunism. Instead of forming that confederation of Europe 
against the Turks which was the most essential duty of 
Christendom at the time, he wasted himself, his eloquence — 
which was considerable — and his material power — which was 
small — in breaking the unruly barons of the Romagna and the 
Marche, and with a petty personal spite quite unworthy of 
him, and, indeed, unlike him, burnt Sigismondo Malatesta in 
effigy in Rome. The effort to regain Constantinople, worthy 
of all his energy, came to nothing, and, as though in remorse 
for his failure, we see him at last, feeble and suffering, borne 
to Ancona on a litter to bless and encourage the half-hearted 
and belated Crusade. There he died in August, 1464. Look- 
ing back on his life now, it is as a scholar and a humanist he 
chiefly appeals to us. His Commentaries are full of human 
pages and a real love of Nature that in the men of his day 
was only to be found again in Lorenzo de' Medici and Leon 
Alberti. He was a mixture more strange than rare, of weak- 
ness and strength, of a vanity and an idealism truly Sienese. 
He erred, but he did not deceive himself; he did not try to 
make himself out nobler than he was ; and for his sincerity 
and his frankness we respect him, so that his very incon- 
sistencies come at last to seem the most real things about him, 
and his thoughts about life, so plentifully recorded, really spon- 
taneous impressions, are valuable to us on that account. And 
last, but not least, he had the courage of his opinions — he 
canonized S. Catherine. 

The frescoes which Pintoricchio painted to illustrate Pius' 
life begin on the right with that in which we see him starting 
for the Council of Basle with Cardinal Capranica. In the 
second we see him at the Court of James I of Scotland. Later 
he is crowned poet-laureate by Frederic III ; as envoy of the 
Emperor he meets Pope Eugenius IV; as Bishop he is 
present at the meeting of the Emperor and of Eleonora of 
Portugal, his betrothed, outside the Porta Camollia; l^e is 



Ii8 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

made Cardinal by Calixtus III ; he is elected Pope ; he 
attends the Congress he had summoned at Mantua to pro- 
mote a Crusade against the Turks ; he canonizes S. Catherine ; 
he is borne to Ancona to bless the Crusade. 

Full as these works are of the petty detail that Pintoricchio 
loved, they are redeemed even from their faults of composition, 
even from their feebleness of structure, even from their lack of 
life, by the spaciousness of their landscape and the charm of 
their thousand incidents. They are a complete decoration to 
the room, though not perhaps a really splendid one, and they 
remain the masterpiece of the arti^ and one of the brightest 
and most harmonious works of the Renaissance. 

Leaving the Duomo at last for the spaciousness and light of 
the Piazza on our way to the Opera del Duomo, we pass under 
the beautiful Romanesque Campanile that is so splendid and 
so lofty a feature in any view of the city. It is a work of the 
first half of the fourteenth century. 

Among the many fragments that go to make up the museum 
of the Opera, fragments from the fagade of the Duomo, 
fragments from the Duomo pavement, and I know not 
what else, it is, after all, to that room on the third floor 
which holds Duccio's broken Majestas that we shall return 
again and again. Before this marvellous altarpiece one 
often wonders whether this was not the greatest thing Siena 
ever accomplished in the world of action, in the world of 
art, in the world of the intellect. It alone, at any rate, 
endures for ever. 

Duccio was born about 1255, and already in 1278 he was 
employed as a painter by the state, and in 1280 was for some 
reason or other heavily fined. These are the two earliest 
notices we have of him.^ He was the true founder of the 
Sienese school, which was in its own way as lovely in its results 
as, and perhaps more original in its aim than, the other 
schools of painting in Italy. Duccio certainly seems to have 
got his training from some Byzantine master, perhaps in Con- 

* Cf. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (ed. E. Hutton), "A New History 01 
Painting in Italy " (Dent, 1909), vol. ii, p. I et seq. 




opera del Duomo, Siena 



CENTRE PANEL OF THE MAJESTAS 



SIENA— CATHEDKAL GROUP 119 

stantinople itself, perhaps in Siena. Like many great artists, 
he seems to have remained poor his whole life long ; at 
any rate, he was continually summoned for debt. Whatever 
vicissitudes Fortune may have thrust upon him, this at least 
he was allowed to do — to follow his art, to express himself; 
and the Majestas, which is housed none too well in the Opera, 
is his masterpiece. 

"It was the most beautiful picture that was ever seen or 
made," says Andrea Dei, his contemporary. " It cost more 
than three thousand gold florins, and Duccio, the painter, 
laboured many years at it." As a fact, he took three years to 
complete it ; the work was commissioned on 9 October, 1 308, 
and was borne to the high altar of the Duomo in triumph on 
9 June, 131 1. It seems probable that the rumour of its 
triumph was stolen by Vasari, probably unconsciously, and 
told again of the Rucellai Madonna in S. Maria Novella. 
However that may be, an anonymous chronicler of the time, 
whose work is now in the Archivio of Siena, gives us a very 
circumstantial account of Duccio's triumph. "On the day 
that it was carried to the Duomo," he writes, "the shops 
were shut ; and the Bishop bade that a goodly and devout 
company of priests and friars should go in solemn procession, 
accompanied by the Signori Nove and all the officers of 
the Commune and all the people; all the most worthy 
followed close upon the picture, according to thdr degree, 
with lights burning in their hands; and then behind them 
came the women and children with great devotion. And they 
accompanied the said picture so far as the Duomo, making 
procession round the Campo as is the use, all the bells 
sounding joyously for the devotion of so noble a picture as 
this. And all that day they offered up prayers, with great 
alms to the poor, praying God and His Mother, who is our 
advocate, that He may defend us in His infinite mercy from- 
all adversity and all evil, and that He may keep us from the 
hands of traitors and enemies of Siena." 

The picture thus honoured is one of the great works of the 
Middle Age. In the midst, on a vast throne, is seated the 



120 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Madonna Advocata Senensium, with her Divine Child in her 
arms. Four angels on either side gaze at this wonder, leaning 
dreamily on the back and sides of the throne, while to the 
right and left on either side six others stand on guard. In 
front of these stood SS. John EvangeUst, Paul, Catherine 
John Baptist, Peter, and Agnes ; and before all in adoration 
knelt the four Bishops, the patrons of the city, SS. Savinus, 
Ansanus, Crescentius, and Vittorius. On the footstool of the 
six-sided throne was written — 

MATER SANCTA DEI SIS CAUSSA SENIS REQUIEI SIS 
DUCCIO VITA TE QUIA DEPINXIT ITA. 

This, being interpreted, prays, "Holy Mother of God, be 
thou the cause of rest to Siena, and to Duccio life, because 
he has painted thee thus." 

But this was not all. This altarpiece, as I have said, was 
set up over the high altar of the Duomo, and in those days 
the high altar stood under the cupola. It had therefore to 
be seen from both sides : from the nave where the people 
worshipped and from the choir where the Chapter was 
gathered. The Madonna enthroned with the Divine Child 
and Angels and Saints, as I have described it, faced the 
people, and beneath this was a gradino of nine panels. On 
the other side Duccio painted twenty-six small panels 
illustrating the life of our Lord and the Blessed Virgin, 
above a gradino of nine panels. In all, with the gradini, 
the altarpiece consisted of forty-four small panels beside the 
Majestas, only thirty-five of which remain in Siena. The rest 
are scattered. Three of the western predella panels are in 
Berlin, three of the ed^stern predella panels are in the National 
Gallery, while three other panels are in the possession of Mr. 
Benson, of London.^ 

It is a pity that the Sienese authorities cannot find a better 

^ Cf. Crowe and Cavalcaselle (ed. E. Hutton), op. cit., vol. ii, p. 8 
et seq. Mr. Berenson, ** Central Italian Painters" (1909), gives an excel- 
lent description of the Majestas. 



SIENA— CATHEDRAL GEOUP 121 

room in which to place this, perhaps the greatest work in their 
possession. It should be re-erected, if not in a church — that 
might seem to be impossible — then in a room by itself. The 
missing panels could be replaced by copies. As it hangs at 
present it is impossible to appreciate its true effect. What 
it must once have been in the Duomo we shall never know. 

It is difficult to look at the other pictures in the room in the 
light of this spoiled splendour. Yet they are worth looking 
at, especially a spoiled but still lovely Pietro Lorenzetti, the 
Birth of the Virgin, and four spoiled but beautiful panels, 
early work by Ambrogio Lorenzetti. 

Nor should one forget to enjoy the view over the city from 
the fagade, reached by a door at the end of the room. 

Turning now to the Baptistery, you descend the steps into the 
Piazza di S. Giovanni, and passing the Palazzo del Magnifico 
on the right, built for Pandolfo Petrucci by Cozzarelli, you are 
face to face with the . unfinished facade of S. Giovanni by 
Mino del Pellicciaio, which, though unfinished, is really a 
success. The interior is beautiful. In the midst is the great 
font, designed by Jacopo della Querela, the greatest of 
Sienese sculptors; while the bronze reliefs, six in number, 
which adorn it are the work of some of the greatest masters 
of the fifteenth century, namely, Jacopo himself, Giovanni 
di Turino the Sienese, Lorenzo Ghiberti and Donatello the 
Florentines. Delia Quercia's relief is that facing the apse, 
the Vision of Zacharias. It is flanked by two figures of 
Justice and Prudence by Giovanni di Turino. Beside it is 
the Birth of John Baptist by the Turini, the figure of Forti- 
tude being from the hand of Goro di Neroccio. The Turini 
are also responsible for the next relief, the Preaching of the 
Baptist, the figure of Charity beside it being by Giovanni. 
Lorenzo Ghiberti made the two following reliefs — the Baptism 
of our Lord and the Baptist before Herod ; while Donatello 
made the Feast of Herod, which comes next, as well as the 
two figures of Faith and Hope which flank it, and three of 
the delightful bronze putti. The extraordinarily vigorous and 
dramatic work of the Florentines, especially that of Donatello 



122 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

with its realism, strikes one strangely beside the more ideal 
and decorative work of the Sienese masters. The statue of 
S. John Baptist and the five marble reliefs of the Prophets, 
which complete the work, are by Delia Querela. On the 
walls we see the work, utterly spoiled now by repainting, 
of Vecchietta and his pupils. 

Returning now to the Piazza del Duomo, we enter the 
Ospedale di S. Maria della Scala, which fills the whole side 
of the Piazza facing the Duomo. Built first as a sort of 
poor-house in the eleventh century by the canons of the 
Duomo, it later became a lodging for pilgrims as well as a 
hospital. Here S. Catherine ministered to " the least of these 
My brethren," and S. Bernardino served the plague-stricken 
in the pestilence of 1400. 

Passing a marble tomb by Cozzarelli and, in a room on the 
right, a fresco of the Visitation by Beccafumi, one enters the 
great hall or Pellegrinaio, which holds the frescoes which tell 
the story of the hospital. They are chiefly the work of 
Domenico di Bartolo. One sees the Marriage of Foundlings, 
Almsgiving, the Care of the sick. Opposite, Pope Celestine HI 
takes the Ospedale from the care of the canons and gives it to 
the laity. Beside this last one sees the reception of a Sister, 
a work by Primo della Querela. Then, again, the enlargement 
of the hospital by Domenico di Bartolo, and close to it, full 
of little children, the Dream of a devout woman, a charming 
and lovely work by Vecchietta. 

: Leaving the Pellegrinaio one passes into the Deposito delle 
Donne, full of the spoiled work of Vecchietta in 1448 ; and 
so into the Infermeria di S. Pio, where is a fresco in mono- 
chrome by Domenico di Bartolo of the Beato Sorore, to whom 
legend attributes the foundation of the hospital. Close by 
is the chapel, a building mainly of the fifteenth century. On 
the altar is a bronze of our Lord by Vecchietta. 

Leaving this church, one descends to the chapels of the 
Confraternities beneath the Ospedale. In that belonging to 
the Compagnia di S. Caterina, where, in fact, S. Catherine 
often came to pray in the midst of her ministrations, is a 



SIENA— CATHEDRAL GROUP 123 

Virgin and Ctiild by Taddeo Bartoli. Below we come to the 
chapel of the Compagnia della Madonna, now a small picture 
gallery. Among the many spoiled works are a triptych by 
Duccio of the Crucifixion, and by the same master the wings 
of another representing the Entombment and the Flagellation. 
A Virgin with S. Catherine of Alexandria, S. Catherine of 
Siena, and other Saints is a spoiled work by Fungai. On the 
next wall is a Madonna and Child by Sano di Pietro. Perhaps 
the finest piece here, however, is Benvenuto di Giovanni's 
S. Catherine leading Pope Gregory back to Rome. Not far 
off is another of Benvenuto's works, a Pieta, and beside it a 
Holy Family by Sodoma, and a Madonna and Child sur- 
rounded by angels by Paolo di Giovanni Fei. 



SIENA 

TERZO DI CITTA 

THE city of Siena from very ancient times was divided 
into three divisions, or municipal districts, known as 
the Terzo di Citta, the Terzo di S. Martino, and the Terzo di 
Camollia. The districts seem to have sprung up about the 
three fortresses of which it seems Siena originally consisted — 
the Castel Vecchio to the south-west, the Castel di Val di 
Montone to the south-east, and the Castel di Camollia to the 
north. Thus there were three Sienas, not one Siena, and in 
Latin Siena was, in fact, always spoken of as Senae. The 
three terzi remained for ages separate communities, organized 
independently in civil, military, and economic affairs. And 
for long after Siena became one, the Magistracy of the 
Republic was in normal times composed of a multiple of 
three, the famous Nove — Nine — being perhaps the best-known 
example.^ And seeing that Siena lies on a hill which breaks 
starwise into three summits, it is not surprising that the 
division into terzi has, in fact, lasted to our own day. 

As we have seen, the central government of the city — of 
the three divisions which had become one — was situated in 
the cup, or hollow plain, between the three summits, and 
thus in the very centre of the city. The Castel Vecchio, on 
the south-western height, when unity had been achieved, 
became the Terzo di Cittk, for there the Duomo was situated, 

* Cf. W. Heywood, "A Guide to Siena" (Torrini, Siena, 1903), 
p. 44» n- I- 

144 



SIENA— TERZO DI CITTA 125 

and within this division was included the site of the central 
government — the Palazzo Pubblico. The Castel di Val di 
Montone, the south-eastern height, became the Terzo di S. 
Martino, taking the name of its parish church; while the 
northern height or ridge, by far the longest of the three, 
retained its name, being called the Terzo di Camollia. It is 
proper to the history of Siena, then, as well as convenient, to 
fall in with this ancient division of the city into three parts 
when making our examination of it. As we stand in the Piazza 
del Campo, we are at the point of junction of these divisions. 
If we pass into the Via di Citta, we penetrate that terzo \ 
if we enter Via Ricasoli, we enter Terzo di S. Martino \ if we 
turn into Via Cavour, we come into Terzo di Camollia. We 
have already examined the chief monuments of the Terzo di 
Citta in the Palazzo Pubblico and the Duomo and its 
dependencies. Let us now proceed by the Via di Citta to 
find what remains to be seen in the Terzo di Citt^. Well, 
to begin with, there is the view of the Piazza and the 
Palazzo through the Costarella on the left as you follow on 
your way, and more than one fine palace on the right ; and 
then just as you come where the Via di Citta bends away to 
the right, on your left stands the great Palazzo Saracini, 
which, though it is a building now for the most part of the 
fourteenth century, was standing in the day of Montaperto, 
for it was from one of its towers that CeccoHni, the drummer, 
watched the progress of the great battle miles away, and gave 
the news to those who remained in the city. 

What brings us to-day, however, to Palazzo Saracini is its 
famous picture gallery. Its chief glory is, of course, the 
works it possesses of the Sienese school. Taking the works 
in chronological order, we find a genuine work by Duccio 
there — a mere fragment, however — a half-figure of an angel 
(1236). The Trecento is further represented by two pinnacles 
(1266), comprising the Annunciation, by Andrea Vanni (I322- 
I4I4), and by one of Paolo di Giovanni Fei's (137 2- 141 o) 
strange pictures, a Madonna and Child with Saints and 
Angels, where Eve lies before the Virgin's throne (1269). It 



126 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

is, however, in works of the Quattrocento, as we might expect, 
that the gallery is richest. Sassetta (i 392-1450) is represented 
by two works — a charming small triptych (1278) and a most 
exquisite predella representing the Adoration of the Magi 
(933), officially given to Fra Angelico. The work of Sassetta's 
disciple, Giovanni di Paolo (1403-1482) is to be seen here in 
what is perhaps his best work — a large panel, dated 1472, 
of the Madonna and Child in the midst of Cherubim (1263), 
as well as in four little panels of the life of our Lord (1257- 
1260). Andrea Vanni's Annunciation forms the pinnacles of 
Giovanni's large picture. There are also several pictures 
here by Sano di Pietro (i 406-1 481), Sassetta's pupil : Four 
fragments of Saints (1237, 1238, 1277, 1278), Our Lord in 
the hands of His Enemies (1265), and in one of the private 
rooms of the Palace a fine Madonna and Child with Angels 
and SS. Jerome and Bernardino on either side. Another 
pupil of Sassetta, Lorenzo Vecchietta (141 2-1480), is well 
represented by a fine small panel of S. Martin giving half 
his cloak to a beggar (1273); while one whom he influenced 
very strongly, Neroccio di Landi (1447-1500), that charming 
artist, is well represented by a Madonna and Child with 
SS. John Baptist and Mary Magdalen (8) and a Madonna 
and Child with SS. Catherine and Bernardino (14), both fine 
examples of that master's work. 

With the work of Pacchia (1477-1535) we are on the ev-e 
of the Cinquecento : he is to be seen in an excellent picture 
here, a Madonna and Child with SS. John, Bernardino, and 
Catherine (752). Beccafumi (1485-1551), altogether of the 
decline, has here a large but unpleasing Marriage of 
S. Catherine (15), a picture of the Rape of the Sabines 
(1422), and an earlier picture of the Madonna and Child 
(1029). And Balducci is seen in a rather charming and 
simple panel representing the Dream of Hercules. 

As for the other Italian schools, that of Milan is best 
represented in the numerous works here of Bresciano ; while 
the Florentine school is best seen in a portrait (205), the 
work of Mainardi, the pupil of Ghirdandaio. 



SIENA— TERZO DI CITTA 127 

Leaving the Palazzo Saracini, you follow the Via della 
Citta, noting the fine old palaces on your way, till you 
come to the Piazza di Postierla, where on the right rises 
the tower of the Forteguerri de' Grandi. In this piazza the 
Via della Citta ends, but you will turn to your left into 
the Via di S. Pietro, beside three fine Gothic palaces, of 
which the finest is the Palazzo Buonsignori. Where the 
streets open and turn, on your left, is the Church of 
S. Pietro alia Scala. Here are some charming works by 
Sano di Pietro : in the sacristy two tondi — the Angel of 
Annunciation and St. Lucy; and over the second altar, on 
the north side, a fragment, usually covered. In the priest's 
house, adjoining the church, is a half-figure of our Lord, by 
Giovanni di Paolo. 

Continuing on your way, you turn almost at once to the 
right into Via Tommaso Pendola, on the left of which is 
the old Convent of S. Margherita, in whose refectory are some 
frescoes by Fungai, while in the church is a spoiled statue of 
S. Margherita by a pupil of Quercia. Where Via Tommaso 
Pendola opens into a piazza bear to the left, passing through 
a narrow way under the Palazzo Celsi on your right, and so into 
the broad Via Baldassare Peruzzi. The Palazzo Celsi is one of 
the finest buildings of Peruzzi, and perhaps the finest specimen 
in Siena of the domestic architecture of the end of the 
fifteenth century. 

Opposite the Palace is the great sixteenth-century Church of 
the Carmine, whose convent has been 'turned into a barracks. 
There is nothing of any great account to see ; but the Well of 
the Diana, in the inner cloister, is curious as witnessing to the 
belief of the Sienese in a hidden river that ran beneath 
the city. The great need of Siena was water, and this well 
was sunk in the hope of discovering that fictitious stream. 
Perhaps the best picture in the church is Beccafumi's S. 
Michael, which is in its own way a masterly and dramatic 
piece of work. Vasari loved it, and has praised it so eagerly 
that many have been offended. 

On leaving the church we return past the Palazzo Celsi 



128 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

and continue on our way in Via Baldassare Peruzzi till we 
come to the piazza in which stands the Church of S. Lucia. 
Here there is an old copy of Simone Martini's fresco over 
the outer gate of Camollia. It is certainly worth attention. 

From S. Lucia we can make our way down Via di S. Marco 
to the gate — there is a fine view all the way, and the gate is 
splendid; or returning to Palazzo Celsi and through the 
narrow passage under it into Via Tommaso Pendola, turn into 
the Via S. Quirico over the height, and so into Via Castel 
Vecchio on the right, through one of the oldest parts of the 
city. At the beginning of Via S. Quirico, on the left, stands 
the Church of S. Ansano, beside it a tower, where, as they 
say, S. Ansano was imprisoned. Within the church is a 
charming picture of the Epiphany, a fifteenth-century work 
with a figure of S. Ansano. 

But perhaps the best way, certainly the least fatiguing, will 
be, instead of following Via S. Quirico and Via di Castel 
Vecchio into Via di S. Pietro, to return through Via Tommaso 
Pendola, or, from S. Lucia, through Via della Cerchia past 
the Renaissance Palazzo Finetti to the Piazza di S. Agostino. 

The Church of S. Agostino is now a building of the 
eighteenth century, and uninteresting. But it possesses two 
treasures of a high importance : the one a Crucifixion, a late 
but lovely work by Perugino ; the other, in the chapel of the 
Blessed Sacrament, a Massacre of the Innocents of an extra- 
ordinary vigour, realism, and horror, but of wonderful colour 
and fine effect, by Matteo di Giovanni. Beside this work 
Sodoma's Adoration of the Magi here seems even more 
insipid than in fact it is. We turn from it with relief to 
the beautiful triptych in the choir, the legend of the Blessed 
Agostino Novello, by Simone Martini. 

Opposite S. Agostino is the little Church of S. Mustiola, 
whose delightful bell-tower is the most charming thing about 
her. On leaving her, we shall do well to wander down to 
Porta S. Marco to watch the sunset, or to return once more 
to the heart of the city, the Piazza del Campo by Via di S. 
Pietro and that winding, picturesque way, Via del Casato. 



XI 
SIENA 

TERZO DI S. MARTINO 

THE smallest of the three terzi.^ the Terzo di S. Martino, 
is best approached from the Piazza del Campo by the 
Via di S. Martino, which leaves it in the extreme south- 
eastern corner on your left as you face the Palazzo Pubblico. 
Passing thence, under the shadow of the Palazzo Piccolomini, 
you come in a few yards to the parish church of S. Martino, 
the sixteenth-century successor of a very ancient building. 
Just within, on the right, is a picture painted by Lorenzo 
Cini to commemorate the glorious victory of Camollia. That 
victory remains the most heroic in the later annals of the 
Republic, and in all respects coincides with that of Monta- 
perto, though nearly three hundred years lie between them. 
Just as before the earlier battle Buonaguida had placed the 
city under the dominion of the Blessed Virgin, and led the 
people to her throne in the Duomo, so again, before the 
battle of Camollia, Margherita Bichi, widow of Francesco 
Buonsignori, a woman of prophetic soul, declared that the 
Blessed Virgin would protect Siena, and that it was her 
will that the city should especially honour the feast of her 
Immaculate Conception, not then proclaimed an article of 
Faith. On the following Sunday, as the Madonna had desired, 
all the magistrates went to the Duomo in procession, confessed 
and communicated and knelt before the Madonna del Veto, 
"to which at other times they had presented themselves"; 

K 129 



130 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

and there, after the Mass of the Immaculate Conception 
was over, they confirmed and renewed the donation of the 
city " to its true Patroness." ^ The trouble in which Siena 
found herself was caused by the accursed ambition of the 
Medici Pope Clement VII, who, taking advantage of the 
internal dissensions of the Republic, and taking to him the 
Sienese exiles, thought with help of the Florentines — those 
blind papal Florentines, quei Papal Fiorentini ciechi^ as the 
people said — to bring Siena under the heel of the Holy See. 
But there is still a God who disapproves of the inordinate greed 
of His ministers, who continually try to strangle civil liberty 
and so put their own permitted existence in peril. More- 
over, the Blessed Virgin is the last person to refuse help 
to those who earnestly call upon her, and least of all to her 
own city of Siena. With these two Powers dreadfully adverse 
to them, the Pope and his blind Florentines had, as we may 
imagine, but a poor chance of success. Yet such is the 
blindness of fools that they persisted in striving to satisfy 
the insatiable greediness which has always distinguished them. 
Is it any wonder, then, that in these circumstances they 
placed their guns badly outside the Porta Camollia? Is 
it any wonder that they did next to no harm? Is it 
any wonder that when the Sienese issued out of the city, 
shouting for joy and of great courage, they seemed to see 
Michael and his host of archangels, and that for every mile 
the Sienese pursued the Florentines ran ten ? Truly that day 
the keys of Peter jingled unseemly about the quaking knees of 
one who sought hiding in haste ; the triple crown was struck 
awry, the blind papal Florentines, led by the blind, fell, as 
the Gospel foretold, into the ditch; while the victorious 
Sienese, returning with songs and thanksgivings to the city 
of the Virgin, dragged within their walls the deserted 
guns under the banners they had won from the Church 

* See the deliberations of the Balia and the Concistoro for 21 and 22 
July in Pecci, '*Memorie," &c., ii, pp. 211-213, quoted in E. G. 
Gardner, "The Story of Siena," p. 213. Cf. also W. Heywood, "A 
Pictorial Chronicle of Siena " (Torrini, Siena), pp. 82-86. 



SIENA— TERZO DI S. MARTINO 131 

or from Florence. " You know," wrote Francesco Vettori 
to Machiavelli, "you know how unwillingly I allow myself to 
believe anything supernatural, but this defeat seems to me to 
have been as extraordinary — I will not say miraculous — as 
anything that has happened in the war from 1494 till now; 
it seems to me like those stories I have read in the Bible when 
a sudden terror fell upon a host, so that it fled it knew not 
from what." 

Here in S. Martino we may remember such days as those. 
For it might seem they are scarce to be found any more upon 
earth. 

There is but one other thing of real interest in the church 
amid much obscure but charming work, the litter of the years 
that come no more — I mean the fine Nativity of our Lord by 
Beccafumi. 

Close by is the Misericordia, once an ospedale for pilgrims. 
But we follow the Via di S. Martino between the ancient 
palaces, past the Church of S. Giusto, where is a spoiled 
picture by Sano di Pietro, till at the end we come to the 
Church of S. Girolamo, where in the cloister is a wonderful 
panel by Fungai of the Assumption, while in the church itself 
are some works by Pacchia, and in the sacristy a Coronation 
of the Virgin by Sano. 

S. Girolamo, however, cannot keep us long from the best of 
all, the great Church of the Servi di Maria, at the top of the 
Via dei Servi, whence we may see the desert that lies 
between Siena and her mountain — Mont' Amiata. Here, 
on the ramparts of the city of the Virgin, towers the church 
her especial servants have erected in her honour under the 
invocation of her Holy and Immaculate Conception. As we 
look at that beautiful pierced Campanile, how can we but 
remind ourselves of her beautiful names — 

Rosa Mystica, 
Turris Davidica, 
Turris Eburnea, 
Domus Aurea; 
Foedera Area, 
Janua Coeli. 



132 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Within at the base is a fresco of Madonna Refugium 
Peccatorum rescuing souls from the lively flames of Purgatory ; 
and who that has spent a summer day in the fires of the contado, 
far away where there is neither shelter nor shade, but has 
understood this thing, and the refreshment to be found within 
the city of the Virgin after the purgatorial heat of July. 

Within, the church is spacious and lovely, and full of such 
treasures as once abounded everywhere, but that now are only 
left in such lovely shrines as this. 

Above the first altar on the right is the great Madonna del 
Bordone by Coppo di Marcovaldo (1261), truly miraculous 
and worshipful. Later, over the last altar on this side of the 
church, is another Massacre of the Innocents by Matteo di 
Giovanni, painted in 1491, and later than the more splendid 
composition in S. Agostino. Then in the right transept is 
a new marvel, the Madonna del Popolo by Lippo Memmi, 
the most touching and lovely of his works, while over the 
sacristy door is a Madonna of the school of Cimabue. 

Nor is this all, for in the next chapel we find a great 
fresco by Pietro Lorenzetti, the Massacre of the Innocents, 
but lately uncovered from the whitewash of fools, a truly 
Splendid piece of work. Opposite to it is a Nativity by 
Taddeo Bartoli. In the chapel, on the other side of the 
choir, are two other frescoes, by Pietro Lorenzetti, of the 
Dance of Salome, and St. John in Patmos. 

Besides the pictures we have seen, over the high altar 
Fungai placed his Coronation of the Virgin, and though it has 
been spoiled by restoration, it still retains a shadow of its 
loveliness. While to the Madonna del Popolo, and the 
Madonna del Manto, and the Madonna del Bordone we may 
add the lovely Madonna del Belvedere by Mino del 
Pellicciaio over the second altar in the north aisle. 

And even as in the spiritual life Madonna leads us to the 
throne of her Son, who is God, so the Church of the Servi di 
Maria brings us to the SS. Trinity. You would certainly not 
seek it out but that the Servi had drawn you hither, for it is 
small and hidden away, and beside the Church of Madonna 




Lippo Mevn 



Servi, Siena 



MADONNA AND CHILD 



SIENA— TERZO DI S. MARTINO 133 

holds but little that is very attractive — only a Madonna with 
Saints by Sano in a side chapel, and in the sacristy a Madonna 
with the Baptist and S. Michael Archangel by Neroccio — one 
of his lesser works. 

From the SS. Trinita we descend the steps in the Via di Val 
Montone, and turning to the right, when we come to the Via 
Romana — which is the Via Francigena that enters Siena 
at the Porta Camollia — we proceed to the Porta Romana 
where it leaves it. Originally called Porta Nuova, it is the 
surprising and lovely work of Angelo di Ventura in the 
fourteenth century, and is the best example in the city of 
a double gate fortified. Over it is the still wonderful fresco 
by Sano di Pietro, quite spoiled by restoration. Returning on 
our way up the Via Romana, we come, at the first turn of 
the great road, to the little church of S. Galgano with the 
Augustinian convent of the Santuccio behind it. The two 
fine statues to be found there of the Madonna and Angel of 
Annunciation are by a disciple of Jacopo della Querela. 

Where the Via Romana becomes Via Ricasoli we turn to 
the right, and gain admittance, if we can, to the Rifugio, 
where is the exquisite picture of Madonna praying, which 
Mr. Berenson gives to Pier Francesco Fiorentino. In the 
schools are several fine Sienese pictures, a Madonna and 
Child by Fungai, and two spoiled works by Sano. 

Close by is the Palazzo di S. Galgano, where there is 
another Sano. 

From here we follow the Via dei Pispini to the Church of 
S. Spirito, whose chiefest possessions are a Virgin in Glory by 
Matteo Balducci, perhaps his best picture, and a Crucifix by 
Sano di Pietro. In the Cappella degli Spagnuoli, in the south 
aisle, are frescoes by Sodoma : they are certainly nothing to 
boast of. The terra-cotta Nativity is by one of the later 
Robbia. 

From this church we may, if we will, follow the Via dei 
Pispini to the great Porta, taking on our way the Church of 
S. Chiara, a charming piece of architecture. In any case we 
shall return along Via Ricasoli, passing, just before we come 



134 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

to the Palazzo Piccolomini on the left, the Loggia del Papa, a 
building of Federighi's in 1462 for Pius II. It has not its 
equal in all high Siena for charm and delight. 

As for the Palazzo Piccolomini, it will stand for ever, as it 
was evidently meant to do, let us hope. The finest archi- 
tectural work of the Renaissance in Siena, it is now the 
Archivio of the city. Its chief treasure, perhaps, are those 
Tavolette, or covers of the books of the customs which form 
in themselves a history of the Republic. Those who wish 
rightly to understand them cannot do better than buy Mr. 
Hey wood's little book about them, " A Pictorial Chronicle 
of Siena," where the whole subject is discussed, explained, and 
wonderfully set in order. ^ But to get this book you must 
pursue your way up till Via Ricasoli becomes Via Cavour, for 
it is there on the right-hand side that Signor Torrini keeps 
shop. 

* You may buy this splendid and learned little work, full of illustrations, 
at Torrini's shop for 4 francs. 



XII 
SIENA 

TERZO DI CAMOLLIA 

TO explore the last terzo of Siena, the Terzo di Camollia, 
we leave the Piazza del Campo on the north and follow 
Via Cavour, which, like Via Ricasoli and Via Romana which 
continue it, is a part of the great mediaeval highway from the 
north — the Via Francigena by which all the Emperors marched 
to Rome. 

Almost at once we come on the right to the Piazza Tolomei, 
in midst of which is set the Church of S. Cristoforo, and which 
is closed by the great Palazzo Tolomei, the last remnant in 
Siena of all that once belonged to that tremendous family. 
This square was once one of their strongholds, almost 
surrounded by their houses. The Church of S. Cristoforo, 
which has played a great part in the history of Siena — for 
there the Magistrates were used to assemble before the 
Palazzo Pubblico was built, while the Commune assembled 
in the Piazza itself — has been altogether rebuilt, and is now of 
little interest, save that it holds Pacchia's Madonna and Child 
enthroned between S. Luke and the Beato Raimondo, one of 
his best pictures. 

Hence, passing round the north side of the church, we cross 
the top of the Via Sallustio Bandini and enter the piazza 
before the too late Renaissance Church of S. Maria di 
Provenzano. Begun in 1595 and finished sixteen years later, 
the church is the great shrine of that image of the Madonna 
which, owing chiefly to a quarrel between the Archbishop of 

135 



136 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Siena and an historian that prevented the usual adoration 
of the Madonna del Voto in the Duomo, was the object 
of almost universal worship in the sixteenth century in Siena. 

Mr. Heywood, in his excellent and too Uttle known volume, 
"Palio and Ponte,"^ tells the story of the rise to fame of 
this image. In 1594 the people of Siena were afflicted by 
a very grievous famine, and desired to turn themselves to 
their advocate and to implore once more the pity of their 
suzerain Lady the Blessed Mother of our Lord, Mary most 
Holy. But as it happened at this very time a furious contest 
was raging between Ascanio Piccolomini, Archbishop of Siena, 
and Giugurta Tommasi, historian and rector of the Opera del 
Duomo, so that it was not possible for them to go, as of old, 
to the Madonna del Voto in the Cathedral. Now for some 
time it had been whispered that an image of our Lady, which 
stood between two windows of a humble dwelHng in the Via 
di Provenzano di Sotto, was working miracles. On i July, 
the Vigil of the Visitation, this suspicion was made certain 
by a very remarkable occurrence, which happened while her 
shrine was being decorated against the festa, 

" Seated in the same street," Mr. Heywood tells us, " was a 
certain Giulia di Orazio, a woman of notoriously evil life, who 
was tormented by an incurable malady, She, beholding these 
preparations, commenced to scoff at those who made them 
and at the Blessed Virgin. That same evening at dusk she 
felt herself compelled by some mysterious force to go and 
kneel before the sacred image, beseeching pardon and health. 
On the following day she returned once more to offer up the 
same petitions, and a few hours later was made perfectly 
whole ; and when her doctor arrived, as was his wont, to treat 
the sore produced by her illness, on removing the bandages 
which covered it he found, to his amazement, that every trace 
of disease had disappeared. The woman hastened forth to 
offer praise and thanksgiving for the mercy vouchsafed, 

* W. Heywood, " Palio and Ponte " (Methuen, 1904), p. 213. See 
also F. Bandini-Piccolomini, *' La Madonna di Provenzano e le origini 
della sua chiesa " (Siena, 1895). 



UN>VERSlT>r 



SIENA— TERZO DI CAMOLLIA 137 

narrating with emotion, to all those who stood by, the great 
salvation which had been wrought on her behalf. The tale 
passed from mouth to mouth, and ere night fell the whole 
population thronged to the Contrada di Provenzano to pray 
to the miraculous Madonna." 

Thus began the great festa^ one of the greatest in Siena, 
which is held on the day of the Visitation in July : and thus 
was fulfilled the prophecy of Brandano, Christ's madman, 
"Siena vedrai tutte le tue donne andare a Provenzano" — 
** Siena, thou wilt see all thy women go to Provenzano." As I 
have said, the Church of S. Maria di Provenzano, which was 
built as shrine for the miraculous image, was begun in the 
following year, 1595. 

Passing round to the north of the church, we follow the 
street, which, after crossing the Via di Giglio, enters the Via 
de' Rossi, along which we pass to the Piazza di S. Francesco. 

This spot has been a Franciscan settlement since 1236, but 
the church we now see is mainly of the fourteenth century. 
It is, however, but a shell, for all the splendid monuments 
which once made S. Francesco to Siena what S. Croce is 
to Florence were destroyed in the great fire of 1655. To-day 
the church contains little of interest, some frescoes by the 
Lorenzetti and the fifteenth-century tomb of Cristoforo Felici 
by Urbano of Cortona. The Lorenzetti frescoes are in the 
first and second chapels in the south aisle. In the first is 
a Crucifixion, somewhat spoiled, by Pietro Lorenzetti ; in the 
second are two frescoes by Ambrogio, the Martyrdom of 
certain Franciscans in Morocco and S. Francis before Pope 
Honorius III. 

Close by in the chapel of the Seminario is a splendid panel 
by Ambrogio Lorenzetti of the Madonna and our Lord, one 
of his best works, while in the refectory are some spoiled 
frescoes by the same artist. And in the parlour of the 
Seminary is a Madonna and Child by Segna di Buena- 
ventura. 

On the south side of the Piazza stands the Oratorio di 
S. Bernardino, which contains some poor works by the later 



138 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Sienese painters. In a room at the top of a flight of stairs 
over an altar is a Madonna by Sano di Pietro. 

After returning to the Via de' Rossi we take the first street 
to the right, and following it come to the Porta Ovile. Above 
the gate hangs an ancient Crucifix, and to the left is a fine but 
spoiled fresco by Sano di Pietro of the Madonna between SS. 
Bernardino and Ansano. Without the gate is the charming 
Fonte Ovile. 

We return to the Via de' Rossi, and following it turn into 
the second street on the left, the Via di S. Pietro Ovile, which 
leads us at once to the church of that name. Within, over 
the door, is a Crucifix by Giovanni di Paolo. To the right is 
a very fine and exquisite copy of Simone Martini's great altar- 
piece of the Annunciation, now in the Uffizi. The authorship 
of this work has been the subject of much controversy.^ Mr. 
Berenson and Mr. Perkins and Miss Lucy Olcott ascribe it, I 
believe, to an unknown master of the later Trecento ; Mr. 
Douglas, on the other hand, declares it is by Sassetta. How- 
ever that may be, the pinnacles above are by Matteo di 
Giovanni. The Madonna enthroned opposite is from the 
hand of Pietro Lorenzetti, the two saints, Bernardino and 
John Baptist, at the sides being the work of Matteo di 
Giovanni. 

We return to the Via de' Rossi and follow it to the left. 
Almost at once a street leaves it on the right. Following 
it we come to the Piazza di S. Donato, before the church of 
that name, where there is a painting of Pacchia's, and in the 
chapel of SS. Chiodi a Madonna and Child by Andrea Vanni. 

Following once more Via de' Rossi, we presently reach the 
Via Cavour. In it we turn to the right and proceed past the 
Palazzo Spannocchi, now the Post Office, the Palazzo Salim- 
beni, and the Palazzo Tantucchi, which holds a fine fresco of 
the Madonna and Child by Benvenuto di Giovanni. A little 
further beside two towers, once the Roman gate of ancient 
Siena, we turn to the left and come to the Church of S. Maria 

' See Crowe and Cavalcaselle (ed. by E. Hutton), " A New History 
of Painting in Italy" (Dent, 1908), vol. ii, p. 109, note. 



SIENA— TERZO DI CAMOLLIA 139 

delle Nevi, with a facade by Federighi, Within is a fine altar- 
piece by Matteo di Giovanni over the high altar, from which 
the church takes its title — Madonna of the Snows. The 
predella tells the story of the foundation of S. Maria Maggiore 
in Rome. 

Returning to Via Cavour, we presently pass on the right the 
Palazzo Costantini, a work, it is thought, of Francesco di 
Giorgio. Further and still on the right is the Church of 
S. Andrea, with its broken altarpiece by Giovanni di Paolo. 
Just there the Via Cavour changes its name and becomes Via 
di CamoUia. Half-way to the Porta Camollia on the left 
stands the Church of S. Bartolommeo, with an ancient fresco 
of our Lord without. Within is the tomb of Pintoricchio and 
some few pictures, a repainted altarpiece by Sano di Pietro 
over the high altar, a triptych by some pupil of Bartolo di 
Fredi, a Madonna and Child with Angels by Vecchietta, and 
in the sacristy a banner with figures of SS. Vincenzo and 
Anastasio, the ancient patrons of the church, by Fungai. 

Little is to be gained by continuing along Via di Camollia 
to the Gate, which is for the most part a building of the 
seventeenth century. On the way thither we pass at the head 
of a street on the left the fifteenth-century Church of Fonte- 
giusta, where are several late pictures and an exquisite Corona- 
tion of the Virgin by Fungai. 

Returning down Via di Camollia from the Church of 
S. Bartolommeo, we take the first street on the right, the 
Via Gazzani, which leads us to the little church of S. Stefano, 
where there is a fine polyptych by Andrea Vanni. The 
predella is the work of Giovanni di Paolo. 

From the church door we look across the Passaggio della 
Lizza, which is the Sienese Cascine, or Park. Beyond it stands 
the Fortezza of Grand-Duke Cosimo. Striking across the base 
of the Lizza from the Church of S. Stefano we enter the viale 
Curtatone, which presently leads us to the great church of the 
Dominicans, S. Domenico, which occupies the same position 
on the west flank of Siena as S. Francesco does on the east. 
A vast and sober building of the late fifteenth century, S. 



140 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Domenico, like S. Francesco, occupies the site of a much 
earlier building, for the Dominicans settled in Siena in 
1225. 

Within the church has lost much of the simplicity which 
S. Francesco retains. Its great attraction among its numerous 
possessions is the frescoes by Sodoma in the chapel of S. 
Catherine, where in a marble reliquary the head of the saint 
is venerated. Personally, I have never been able to love 
these works. They seem to me to sensualize what was wholly 
spiritual, wholly lovely and simple in the life of a great saint. 
They point the way to Bernini. Even the most famous scene 
of all those represented here, the Swoon of S. Catherine, 
seems to me meretricious and full of stupidity, admirable 
though it may be as a composition. It is as though in 
painting the hills one had forgotten everything in them that 
is of importance to us. For me these works are sheer nothing. 
How much I prefer those humbler pictures in which S. 
Domenico is, alas ! not too rich to-day : the spoiled Sano 
on the second altar in the south aisle, Giovanni di Paolo's 
panel of the Beata Caterina de' Lenzi close by, Francesco di 
Giorgio's picture of the Nativity, the Pieta by Matteo di 
Giovanni and his S. Barbara between S. Mary Magdalen and 
S. Catherine of Alexandria in the second chapel of the north 
aisle, his broken altarpiece in the west chapel, and that of 
Madonna enthroned by Benvenuto di Giovanni. But best of 
all that S. Domenico holds is the surprising view of the 
Duomo and the world to be had from a little window at 
the back of the choir. It is a vision, and beside it the 
pretentious works of Sodoma pass into nothingness. 

But with S. Domenico we have entered upon that district 
of Siena which may be said to be S. Catherine's own. The 
greatest of all Tuscan saints and one of the greatest women 
of all time, after the Blessed Virgin she seems to us to be 
the liege lady of Siena. Like the city she dreamed, but 
unlike the city she realized her vision. She lost herself in 
God, she tended the sick and weary, she dominated the 
Church and led the exiled Pope by the hand back from 



X-^ Of THE ^ 



CA 



LifOg^ 



S. CATHERINE 141 

Avignon. And close by the Church of S. Domenico — for she 
was a Dominican — she has her chapel, the Cappella della 
Volta, which in her day was actually a part of the church. 
Here she loved best to pray, and here she was granted many 
of her visions. To-day over the high altar hangs her portrait 
by Andrea Vanni — an authentic and contemporary portrait. 

From S. Domenico, from the apse of S. Domenico we 
descend steeply by a rough way to Fontebranda, probably 
the most ancient of Siena's fountains — those fountains which 
first among so many other things still remind us of her ancient 
connection with Rome. 

Before the Fountain passes the Via Benincasa, the street of 
the dyers, and here S. Catherine had her home. The house, 
the oratories which have taken its place, stands half-way up 
the steep street on the left. The first chapel we enter contains 
many reminders of her, best of all Neroccio's wonderful statue, 
which beside Pacchia's realistic work seems always more 
delightful. Above, by a flight of steps, we enter another 
chapel, covered with modern frescoes. Here was her cell, 
where she gave alms ; to-day it holds many of her relics — her 
pillow, her lantern, her veil, her hair-shirt, a piece of her staff, 
and such. The third chapel, entered from a loggia, is the 
chapel of her Confraternity. Over the altar Fungai has painted 
her receiving the Stigmata, with how much finer an under- 
standing than Sodoma has been able to show. Higher still, 
and on the other side of the court, is the fourth chapel of the 
Most Holy Crucifix, where there is a wonderful Crucifix by 
some disciple of Giunta Pisano. It was before this Crucifix 
that S. Catherine received the Stigmata. 

Born 25 March— the Feast of the Annunciation — 1347, 
Catherine was the daughter of Giacomo di Benincasa, a dyer, 
well-to-do and pious, and of Lapa di Puccio di Piagente, " a 
woman," as Raimondo, the Saint's confessor and biographer, 
tells us, " utterly alien from the corruption of our times albeit 
she was exceedingly careful and busy over the affairs of her 
household and family, as all those who know her are aware, for 
she is still alive." Catherine was one of the younger children 



142 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

in a very numerous family, and Lapa seems to have loved her 
above the rest. Indeed, as a child she was the darhng of her 
little circle of friends and neighbours, who named her Euphro- 
syne, as who should say Joy. We know little of her childhood, 
but we see her a baby of five years kneeling to salute the 
Blessed Virgin " on every step as she passed up and down the 
staircase of her father's house." ^ It was at this age, too, that 
we are told, as she passed down the precipitous Vallepiatta 
towards Fontebranda, hand in hand with her elder brother, 
**she looked up and saw over the summit of S. Domenico 
Christ seated on an imperial throne clad in purple robes 
and wearing the tiara, attended by S. Peter, S. Paul, and 
the beloved disciple S. John. He smiled upon her and 
blessed her, and the girl was absorbed in ecstasy, knew not 
where she was or what she did." 

This seems to have been the beginning and the cause of her 
withdrawal from the ways of the world. She would fast and 
discipline herself and dream of entering the Dominican Order 
disguised as a boy. All this and more. She determined when 
she was seven to dedicate her maidenhood to Christ, she told 
her confessor later. 

Now above all her other sisters Catherine loved Buona- 
ventura best ; and it was she who, when the child was twelve 
years old and marriageable, at their mother's suggestion 
persuaded Catherine to give herself to life, to dye her hair, 
and to conform to the fashions of the world. But in 1362 
Buonaventura died, and Catherine, perhaps taking this for a 
sign, now certainly in bitter repentance, dedicated herself once 
more to God. Her family was angered and invoked the aid of 
a Dominican friar, Fra Tommaso della Fonte, a man of 
sincere piety and her confessor. He failed to move her, how- 
ever, and since she was resolute, counselled her to pursue her 
way, to cut off her beautiful hair, and to wait upon the Will of 
God. Her family, however, was obdurate. Her room was 

' See E. G. Gardner, " St. Catherine of Siena " (Dent, 1907), p. 6. 
This work is by far the best life of the Saint. It is essentially the work of 
a scholar, and it makes excellent and most pleasant reading. 



S. CATHEKINE 143 

taken from her, she was compelled to do all the hard work of 
the house, and no time was left her for prayer or devotion. 
But she found a silence of which none might deprive her, and 
where Time is not there is time for everything. " She made 
herself in her mind, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, a secret 
cell that could not be taken from her, and this she never left." 
Moreover, "she firmly pictured to herself that her father 
represented our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, her mother 
the most Glorious Mother of God, and that her brothers and 
the rest figured the holy apostles and disciples, and because 
of this imagination she served them all with such great glad- 
ness and diligence that every one marvelled." She had dreams 
and visions too. S. Dominic appeared to her and oifered her 
the habit of the Sisters of Penance and promised it to her. 

Her father by now was convinced of her vocation, for one 
day as he passed through the house he came upon her praying 
in her brother's room, and over her head he saw a snow-white 
dove hovering. And presently he gave her leave to follow the 
Will of God. 

Shortly afterwards she took the habit of the Sisters of 
Penance, the Mantellate, an Order really of widows. At first 
they refused it to her, but when she lay ill and asserted that 
God and S. Dominic would take her from the world unless she 
were received, they gave way and accepted her as a Sister. 
She received the habit from a Dominican friar in the 
Cappella della Volta in S. Domenico, probably in 1363.^ 

From this time her life became of a terrible austerity. 
For three years, we are told, she spoke to none but God and 
her confessor. Her whole time was spent in religious exercises, 
in mortification, in discipline, and in contemplation. A 
demonic possession followed. The devil, in whom we are 
much too clever to believe, but who nevertheless in his quiet 
way is always getting the better of us, assailed her imagination 
with every sort of abomination and her heart with the basest 
temptations. There followed what I think is known to 
mystical theology as " the Night Obscure." An immense and 

^ E. G. Gardner, op, cit.^ p. 12. 



144 SIENA AND SOUTHEKN TUSCANY 

frightful darkness and dryness descended upon her soul. She 
seemed to be on the brink of an unspeakable precipice and to 
be about to be cast down. Her arms were tireless in prayer, 
but no God answered. Her lips ceaselessly pronounced the 
invincible name of Jesus, but she seemed lost in the darkness 
and loneliness. Yet was she in perfect safety in the shadow 
of His wings. 

** Scapulis suis obumbrabit tibi 
Et sub pennis ejus sperabis." 

Then in this desert of the soul, in the emptiness that broke 
her heart, she cried out, " Where wast Thou, my divine Spouse, 
whilst I lay in such loneliness and fear ? " And out of that vast 
silence a still small voice made answer, " I was with thee." 
" What ! " she cried in horror, " amid those filthy abominations 
with which my soul was infested ? " And again that voice 
answered, " Even so." And she fell down in anguish but 
cried out no more. 

Then God, because He loved her, gave her His supreme last 
gift of patience, and when the devil, neglecting neither violence 
nor stratagem, solicited her pride. He covered her with the 
invincible buckler of His Love that she escaped those fiery 
arrows and remained in quietness. 

She sought humility and ensued it. Coming out of herself, 
she ministered to the poor; they were His brethren. She 
served old Cecca, the leprous woman who was sent out of the 
city, who did nothing but curse her ; and one afflicted with 
cancer she tended lovingly in ways unspeakable, though all 
she had in return was calumny. Most of all she strove 
with the turbulence, inconstancy, and hatred of her fellow- 
citizens, with too little effect, yet Pio H says there was not 
one who ever spake with her who went not away a better 
man. 

It was probably in 1366 that Catherine began to go forth 
from her retreat. At this time, while she devoted herself to 
the poor and the sick, she was the victim of the jealousy and 
detraction of her sisters. A certain Suor Palmeria hated her, 



S. CATHEKINE 145 

but she was converted ; others succeeded in alienating 
some of the friars, and for a time she was deprived of the 
Blessed Sacrament. 

The years which followed were full of evil for Tuscany, and 
indeed all Italy. In April, 1367, Pope Urban left Avignon for 
Rome, where he arrived in October, only to leave the Eternal 
City again for Avignon in September, 1370. Siena was in a 
state bordering on anarchy. It was in the midst of this 
disquiet that Catherine's public life began. It opened with a 
number of conversions, and when, in 1374, pestilence laid 
waste the Senese, Catherine served the sick, and thousands 
came only to hear her. The Pope himself commissioned two 
Dominicans to hear the confessions of those whose hearts 
she had changed. 

In 1375 she went to Pisa. Florence was ready to rise with 
Perugia against the absent Pope. On their banners they 
emblazoned the terrible and impossible word " Libertas." 
And Catherine marked it, and, throwing off her dreams, 
descended to deliver her people from their own folly. By 
her words she prevented Siena and Arezzo from joining the 
Florentines. Her acts were of an incredible swiftness and 
wisdom. In a kind of despair the Florentines appealed to her. 
She agreed to come to them, and when she arrived the chief 
magistrates met her at the gates. In their behalf, in behalf of 
Italy she set out for Avignon, which she reached on 28 June, 
1376 — she, aged twenty-nine, a woman and alone, the ambas- 
sador of Italy to the Pope, compelled to meet him to arrange 
terms of peace and to face his Cardinals alone. Yet she was 
in no way daunted, she was incapable of fear. Moreover, she 
was successful, more than successful; she gained the mastery, 
and bent the Papacy to her will. " I put the affair entirely in 
your hands," the Pope told her ; " only I recommend to you 
the honour of the Church." But she was to find that it was 
not peace that Florence desired, but surrender. 

Her greatest triumph, the true miracle of her life, was 
achieved, however, on this mission. She persuaded the Pope 
to return to Rome. Thus in her genius was found the highest 

L 



146 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

fulfilment of the Dominican idea — a union of the mystical and 
practical life. " Be a brave man and not a coward " she dared 
to say to Gregory, but she had said it first to herself. 

From Gregory in Rome she went to Florence to bring him 
peace, and after a terrible struggle she won it for him. Amid 
scenes of daily violence and murder, in which again and again 
she risked her life undaunted, even when swords were drawn 
against her, she conquered in 1378, and immediately returned 
to Siena to her cell. Against her will she had left that silence, 
and at the first opportunity she returned to it to lose herself in 
God. 

And there our Lord discovered to her mysteries, let us admit 
it, far beyond our understanding. Her whole life became a 
continual miracle absorbed in a Divine contemplation. We 
hear of almost incredible fasts, of humiliations and calumnies 
unthinkable. She rejoiced. One day Christ offered her two 
crowns, of gold and of thorns, and bade her choose. And 
she answered, " I desire, O Lord, to live always conformed to 
Thy Passion, and to find pain and suffering my repose, my 
delight." Then, taking the crown of thorns, she pressed it 
down upon her white forehead. 

To torture her last years there befell the Great Schism, when 
Urban VI was chosen in Rome and Clement VII at Anagni. 
Then she wrote those wonderful letters that none can read 
without weeping. She wrote to the republics of her father- 
land, to the princes of this world, to the great men of the 
Church, and to the Queen of Naples she dared to say 
"I will." 

I pass over the ecstasies, the visions, the innumerable miracles 
God vouchsafed her. I pass by the reception of the Stigmata ; 
these cannot well be spoken of in such a place as this. Of 
her works, too, I say nothing. It remains but to record her 
death, which befell in 1380, on 29 April, when she was thirty- 
three years old. 

What it is important for us to feel, and if possible to 
understand, is that here we have something supernatural and 
wonderful, a shadow, though only a shadow, of the Divinity of 



S. CATHERINE 147 

our Lord. " At her voice, nay, only looking upon her," we 
read, "hearts were changed." Of how many can such words 
be true ? It is part of the glory of S. Catherine that we never 
doubt them for a moment, and part of our joy in her to 
remember that she has not lived in vain. 



XIII 
THE GALLERY OF SIENA 

THE fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in Siena, which 
witnessed the political decadence of the city, are chiefly 
remarkable in her story for her achievement in the fine arts ; 
indeed, the only really great figure of those years is S. Catherine, 
perhaps the greatest personality she was ever able to produce. 

Almost devoid of interest, then, as those two centuries prove 
to be from a political point of view, they are of very great 
importance to us by reason of the fine artistic achievement of 
which they were witnesses. 

The end of the thirteenth century gave us the Palazzo 
Pubblico and the Mangia Tower, and with the opening of 
the fourteenth we come upon the first-rate work of Lorenzo 
Maitani, to whom we owe the facade of the Cathedral of 
Orvieto. The same century saw the building of the Baptistery 
of Siena and the choir of the Duomo, while the fifteenth cen- 
tury gave us the beautiful churches of S. Maria delle Nevi and 
of the Palazzo dei Diavoli, the Convent of the Osservanza, 
and many of Siena's most splendid palaces. 

In sculpture, too, Siena produced during those years some 
charming works, her achievement culminating in the immortal 
work of Jacopo della Querela, who is now but poorly repre- 
sented in Siena by the beautiful debris of the Fonte Gaia in 
the Palazzo Pubblico, and by the relief of the Expulsion of 
Zacharias from the Temple and certain figures on the great 
font in S. Giovanni. 

During the fifteenth century we have the work of Antonio 

148 



THE GALLERY OF SIENA 149 

Federighi, of Vecchietta, of Neroccio, of Giovanni di Stefano, 
of Francesco di Giorgio, and of Cozzarelli, all of whom com- 
bined the art of sculpture with that of painting, and who have 
left many delightful memorials of their facility and taste. 

But it is in painting, the most decorative of the arts, that 
Siena's greatest achievement lies. This was the true art of 
Siena. 

It is idle to discuss whether Florence or Siena were earlier 
in the production of painters. Cimabue, whatever may have 
been his position and achievement, had very little to do with 
Florentine painting as we know it, and Guido of Siena, whose 
famous signed Madonna of 1 221, or more probably 1281, is 
the earliest Sienese work we possess, has as little significance 
in the school of Siena. 

The two great men who founded respectively the schools of 
Florence and Siena are Giotto and Duccio di Buoninsegna, 
and of them Duccio is the earlier, but they can in no sense be 
called rivals. Giotto's aim in his art was to endow painting 
with all the solidity and actuality of life, and this, through his 
genius, became the aim of the school of Florence. Duccio, 
on the other hand, was concerned with a subtler and more 
purely aesthetic ideal. He found in painting an exquisite 
decorative splendour, which he set himself to develop, and by 
his genius compelled every Sienese artist who followed him 
during some two hundred years to pursue the same road. 
Florentine painting, with a few exquisite exceptions, is a 
representation of life ; Sienese painting, with a few negligible 
exceptions, is an expression of it. It is thus we may best, 
perhaps, define the diiference, the impassable difference, 
between the two schools. 

In every history of Sienese painting we hear much of the 
conservatism of the Sienese, and we are told that such con- 
servatism is natural and proper to a mountain people. But 
the Sienese are not a people of the mountains, but of the lower 
hills on the verge of a desert ; their political history shows 
almost every weakness but that of a confirmed conservatism. 
They are unstable, hasty, easily roused, quickly appeased, 



150 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

without persistence in anything. And, indeed, it is on the 
morrow of her forsaking of the Ghibelline cause that her 
painters begin to be famous. It is true that Siena seems to us 
to have been more isolated than Florence, and in part we 
impute her fall to this. But it is doubtful whether, in fact, 
she were so isolated in the Middle Age. The Via Francigena, 
the great mediaeval highway of Italy, passed through the city. 
No such great artery of traffic and international movement 
passed through or even near Florence ; the Vie Aretine, old 
and new, were of an infinitely less importance, and it is not 
till late that we find them in any sense international. The 
truth is that the development of these two schools of painting 
had very little to do with conservatism or its opposite. The 
Sienese advanced and developed their art as indubitably as 
the Florentines, but on different lines. What we see, what we 
are far too ready to explain by such vague terms as con- 
servatism, is really a fundamental difference in the apprehen- 
sion of life, an aesthetic difference too, in its representation as 
in its expression. The Florentine expressed himself once for 
all in Giotto. All Florentine art is but a development of 
Giotto's art. The Sienese expressed himself almost as com- 
pletely in Duccio. All Sienese art is but a development of 
Duccio's art. What we have here, then, is a difference in 
fundamentals, not in development, and with fundamentals 
conservatism can have nothing to do. 

Duccio saw life and wished to express it in a different way 
from Giotto. His intention was different ; not necessarily 
less fine or splendid or beautiful, but different. To the mid- 
Victorian critic — and all our histories of Italian painting are of 
that time — Florentine painting seemed not only to be the direct 
ancestor of the art of his own time, but, in fact, to profess the 
same principles he himself thought he saw practised. More- 
over, Sienese art was very imperfectly known. It had no 
Vasari, and the historians and men of letters of Siena 
were out of all comparison feeble beside their Floren- 
tine brethren. It is thus we have been led to consider 
Florentine art as " true art," fruitful and progressive, while^ in 



THE GALLERY OF SIENA 151 

the art of Siena we have been told there is nothing but reaction 
and conservatism. Nor was this verdict wholly unreasonable. 
The Florentine school founded on the Roman — on the study 
of Nature, that is, and first through the antique — was the true 
heir, if any heir there was, of Pheidias and the sculptors of 
Greece ; it was essentially European in its derivation and in its 
ideals. Hence its success. But the Sienese school, it may 
be more original than the Florentine, derived not from that 
great European school which has always insisted upon the 
importance of realism, but from the Byzantines, whose ideal 
was very different, who denied realism any vast importance, 
and expressed themselves in a wonderful symbolism, an exqui- 
site decoration. What we see in the art of Siena is the 
principle that underlies the art of Japan. It is therefore that 
the schools of Florence and of Siena, essentially different as 
they are, cannot be truly or honestly compared the one with 
the other, and if they should be, it is certain that no just or 
even possible verdict can ever be arrived at from such com- 
parison. One cannot compare, for instance, Westminster 
Abbey with St. Peter's at Rome. To do so would be a fault 
in logic, for they are in different categories. If one wishes to 
judge Westminster Abbey or St. Peter's Church one must 
analyze them on their own lines, and our verdict must be 
given for or against them in so far as they carry out or fail to 
carry out the laws of their own being. It is the same with 
Florentine and Sienese painting. The laws which govern, the 
ideals which inspire, Sienese art, are essentially different from 
those which govern and inspire Florentine art. To under- 
stand this is the beginning of wisdom in the criticism of these 
schools of painting, and only by founding our criticism on this 
fundamental truth can we hope to arrive at any just estimate 
of the value and delight of either. Let this be granted, and 
we shall soon be reasonably convinced of what our eyes have 
assured us from the first, that the intention of the Florentine 
was different from that of the Sienese ; in other words, what 
the Florentine was trying to do was very different from what 
the Sienese was attempting. 



152 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

To define this difference is the business of aesthetics, but 
perhaps we may roughly express it by saying that the Floren- 
tine was trying to represent life, the Sienese rather to express 
it. We shall not, however, allow ourselves to be confined by 
any such rude definition. We shall continually use our eyes, 
we shall continually distinguish. But it might seem obvious 
to the most casual observer of Simone Martini's Annunciation 
in the UfSzi that the man who painted that masterpiece — and 
the hand of man can do no more — might very easily, had he 
wished, have given us a realistic representation of it. Simone 
could see at least as well as ourselves, who live for the most 
part in obscure and foggy cities, that the sky is blue and not 
gold, and that there are three dimensions in the world and not 
two alone. He disregarded such mere facts as unessential, 
and without concern for him. Why ? Because, like every art 
that has ever existed in the world, his art, too, was a conven- 
tion, and such facts as those I have named were to a large 
extent outside his convention. He used gold where blue 
would have been in reality ; he used two proportions where 
three are found in life, in the same way as a poet uses metre 
and rhythm, neither of which has any place in actual human 
speech or the language of the world. He used them not for 
the sake of ornament or for anything less than that they were 
part of the essential language of his art and for the sake of 
beauty. Pheidias and Giotto used a different, a realistic con- 
vention for the same reason, and for the sake of beauty too, 
but a different sort of beauty. Giotto's art, the art of Europe 
generally, is bound by and essentially dependent upon our 
apprehension of reality. Sienese art is essentially dependent 
upon and is ruled by something else, and if it be reality it is 
not our apprehension of it. Life, the representation of life 
as we see it, is with it a secondary, sometimes a tertiary need. 
It subordinates such need to the expression of life in a certain 
essence, a true symbolism, to a certain harmony of lines and 
colours within a given space, and these, by their own beauty and 
inter-relation, contrive within that space a perfect loveliness. 
We shall not, then, in our enjoyment of the exquisite art of 



THE GALLERY OF SIENA 153 

Siena, allow ourselves to indulge in such a barbarism as to 
compare Florentine with Sienese painting, we shall not 
attempt to overwhelm Duccio with Giotto, or to bludgeon 
Simone with Masolino and Masaccio. We shall refuse to 
fight in an absurd cause, and forget the polemics of the critics 
in our delight in the beauty of the work produced during some 
two hundred years by the school of Siena. 

And happily for the modern student, with his multiplicity 
of engagements, his here to-day and gone to-morrow, but to 
the sorrow of us more leisurely travellers, a vast and represen- 
tative number of pictures of the Sienese school has been 
brought together in the Accademia delle Belle Arti, and these, 
with other works still scattered about Siena, allow us to study 
the Sienese school of painting without leaving the city. 

The true founder of that school, which only in our own day 
has found any wide or general appreciation, is, as I have said, 
Duccio di Buoninsegna, who painted between the years 1278 
and 13 1 9. We know very little of him, but such of his work 
as remains to us might seem to prove that he must have had 
his training from some great Byzantine master, possibly in 
Constantinople itself. 

The finest work from his hand that is left to us is the won- 
derful Majestas in the Opera del Duomo, which was carried in 
triumph to its place over the high altar of the Duomo on 
9 June, 1311. It was then that the Madonna delle Grazie, 
which had, as the Sienese believed, procured them the victory 
of Montaperto, was deposed and removed to a place of less 
honour, Duccio's splendid double altarpiece being enthroned 
in her stead, only to be itself deposed in the sixteenth century 
when the present high altar was built. 

Many other works by the master are to be found in Siena : 
in the Gallery an early work, a small Madonna enthroned (20), 
a panel of SS. Peter and John Baptist (22), another of the 
Magdalen (23), fragments from some altarpiece, a Madonna 
with four Saints (28), of which the Madonna and Child alone, 
according to Mr. Berenson, are from Duccio's hand, the rest 
being the work of Segna ; a triptych of the Madonna, Saints, 



154 SIENA AND SOUTHEEN TUSCANY 

Angels, and scenes from the Passion (35), and a polyptych of 
Saints, Patriarchs, Prophets, and Angels (47). In the Spedale 
Gallery are a fine Entombment and Flagellation (21), the 
Crucifixion in the midst being from another hand, and a 
Crucifixion (26). In the Palazzo Saracini is a beautiful bust 
of an angel (1236). 

The closest and most devout of Duccio's followers, so far as 
we know them by name, were Segna and Ugolino. By the 
first there remain in Siena a Madonna with SS. Paul, John 
Evangelist, and Bernard (40), a signed work and two figures 
of Saints, S. Ansano (42) and S. Galgano (43), later works, 
in the Gallery ; while in the reception-room of the Seminario 
of S. Francesco is a Virgin and Child. Nothing by Ugolino 
is left to-day in his native city. 

The greatest of Duccio's pupils, the gayest, too, and the 
most in love with life, was Simone Martini (1285 (?)-i344). 
Nothing by him is to be seen in the Gallery, but his splendid 
though damaged frescoes of the Madonna and Child with Saints 
and of Guidoriccio da Fogliano on horseback in the Palazzo 
Pubblico, painted respectively in 131 5-21 and in 1328, 
with the fine triptych, the Legend of Beato Agostino Novello, 
a later work, in the choir of S. Agostino, happily remain here. 

Simone's pupil, Pietro Lorenzetti (1305-48), and his 
younger brother and pupil, Ambrogio Lorenzetti (1323-48), 
are the first Sienese painters who were touched by outside 
influences, those of Giovanni Pisano and Giotto. By the 
elder, Pietro, very much remains in Siena. In the Gallery are 
a S. Gregory (59), a Madonna in Glory (61), two fragments of 
landscapes (70, 71), an Apostle (79), a Madonna and Angels 
(80), a panel of S. Cecilia (81) painted in 1332, two fragments 
of a predella (83, 84), an Allegory (92), and two panels — 
S. Agnes and another female saint (578, 579). In the Opera 
del Duomo is a fine panel of the Birth of the Virgin (63), 
painted in 1342. In the Spedale are some frescoes of 
S. Anthony Abbot and other Saints. In S. Francesco, in the 
first chapel on the left of the choir, is a fine fresco of the 
Crucifixion, and in the third chapel on the same side some 



THE GALLERY OF SIENA 155 

ruined frescoes. In S. Pietro Ovile is a fine picture of 
the Madonna on the left wall, and in the Servi, in a chapel 
on the right, is a fresco of the Innocents, with other frescoes 
in a chapel on the left of the choir — Salome dancing, the 
Ascension of S. John, and certain saints. 

Nor has Ambrogio, the greater of the two brothers, left us 
less. In the Gallery are five works or fragments from his 
hand : a S. Paul (52), a S. John Baptist (53), a small 
Madonna and Saints (65), a polyptych of the Madonna 
and Saints (77), and an Annunciation (88), painted in 1344. 
In the Opera del Duomo we find four fragments*: panels of 
S. Francis (69), S. Mary Magdalen (71), S. Catherine (72), 
and S. Benedict (73). In the Palazzo Pubblico, in the Sala 
della Pace, we find his famous but obscure frescoes of Good 
and Bad Government, painted in 1338-40, and in the Loggia 
a spoiled fresco of the Madonna. In S. Francesco, in a 
chapel in the convent, is a fine panel of the Madonna and 
Child, painted in 1340. In S. Agostino there are the heads 
of some saints in fresco to the right of the great doors. 
And there used to be a fine Madonna in the Monistero di 
S. Eugenio, in the chapel to the left of the choir ; but it has 
gone to America. 

The Lorenzetti may be said to mark with their nameless 
disciples, whose work we see in the great frescoes of the 
Triumph of Death in the Campo Santo of Pisa, the highest 
achievement of the school of Siena. Barna, a rather feeble 
follower of Simone Martini, who has apparently left nothing 
in Siena, and Lippo Memmi {c. 1375), the brother-in-law of 
Simone, are not extraordinary, though the latter is a very 
charming artist. Lippo Memmi's work in Siena consists 
of two pieces — a panel of Madonna in the right transept 
of the Servi, over the altar of the Madonna del Popolo, and 
a fresco in the cloister of S. Domenico, the Madonna and 
Child with S. Paul and an Angel. 

There follow Bartolo di Fredi (i 330-1410) and Andrea 
Vanni (i 332-1414). Bartolo di Fredi, a follower of Lippo 
Memmi and the Lorenzetti, was considerably influenced by 



1 56 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Barna. His works in Siena are very numerous, there being 
more than twelve in the Gallery alone, beside works in the 
Spedale, in the Palazzo Saracini, and the fine Madonna 
Nursing her Child in S. Martino. In the Gallery we find a 
polyptych of the Madonna and Saints (51), a Head of 
S. Michael (63), various saints on two pilastri (97, 102), 
two predelk (98, 99), Four Scenes from the Life of the Blessed 
Virgin (100), the Assumption of the Virgin (10 1) — these six 
being various parts of a work completed in 1388 — another 
predella with five panels (103), an Adoration of the Magi 
(104), and a panel of SS. Antonio and Onofrio (106). 

Andrea Vanni, too, was perhaps the pupil of Lippo Memmi ; 
at any rate, he was the partner of Bartolo di Fredi, and he 
came under the same influences. His work, like his friend's, 
is very plentiful in Siena, the Gallery alone possessing certainly 
four pieces from his hand — a triptych of S. Michael, S. John 
Baptist, and S. Anthony Abbot (67), a S. James (113), a 
tabernacle with the Crucifixion and various Saints (114), 
and S. John the Evangelist (312). 

He is followed by Taddeo di Bartoli (1362-142 2), who 
developed under the influence of Bartolo di Fredi. The 
Gallery possesses some thirteen of his pieces, and his work is 
very plentiful elsewhere in Siena. His works in the Gallery 
include a Crucifix (55), the Crucifixion (122), the Adora- 
tion of the Magi (127), a small triptych of the Madonna and 
Child with Saints (128), panels of S. Peter Martyr (129), and 
S. Agnes (130), an Annunciation (131), painted in 1409, a 
Nativity (132), a triptych with the Nativity in the midst, 
between S. James and S. Domenico on the one side and 
S. Caterina delle Ruote and S. Maria Maddalena on the 
other, while above is the Resurrection of our Lord, with the 
Annunciation in the pinnacles. The remaining four pieces 
seem to be fragments. They consist of the Martyrdom of 
SS. Cosma and Damian (134)? a S. Matthew (135), two 
panels of the Annunciation (143, 144), and S. Francis 
receiving the Stigmata (162). 

One of the most graphic and charming painters of the 



THE GALLERY OF SIENA 157 

fifteenth century in Siena was Stefano di Giovanni, called 
Sassetta (1392-1450), who, Mr. Berenson tells us, was the 
pupil of Paolo di Giovanni Fei (137 2-14 10). Very little of 
Sassetta's work remains in Siena, but a few small pictures and 
fragments have been gathered into the Gallery — a S. Anthony 
Abbot (166), a Last Supper (167), two panels each with four 
Saints (168, 169), a small triptych of Madonna, Saints, and 
Angels (177), and a Madonna (325); they give but a small 
idea of his loveliness. His master, Paolo di Giovanni Fei, 
however, is very well represented indeed, not less than 
eighteen of his works being found in the Gallery, namely, 
a Madonna on a gold ground, unnumbered in Sala H; a 
Saint on horseback with three Soldiers (96), a Birth of the 
Virgin (116), a Madonna and Saints with the Crucifixion 
above (121), the central part of a triptych, a late work, a 
panel with S. Jacopo, S. Giovanni Battista, and a warrior Saint 
(126), a triptych of the Madonna Enthroned with our Lord, 
whom S. Catherine weds, two Angels, S. Lucy, S. James, and 
S. Bartholomew; on the right panel S. Francis and S. John 
Baptist, on the left S. Antony and S. John Evangelist (137). 
Beside these works there remain two central panels of trip- 
tychs (141, 142), a diptych of the Madonna and Saints (146), 
two triptychs of the Madonna and Saints (154, 183), a panel 
with S. Margaret, S. Scholastica, and S. Laurence (170), two 
wings of a triptych with Saints, Prophets, and the Annuncia- 
tion (221), a Madonna and four Saints (222), a polyptych of 
Madonna and Saints (300), and four other pieces. As Mr. 
Perkins, that admirable student of Sienese art, has pointed 
out, Fei was unrivalled in his day as a painter of small panels. 
Almost all of his smaller works are, in fact, wonderfully 
delicate in workmanship and of surprising decorative effect. 
In his larger paintings he was not always so successful. 

His contemporary, Luca di Tomme, is not so fine an artist, 
and is represented in the Gallery by but one work, a polyptych 
of S. Anne with the Blessed Virgin and Child, S. Catherine 
and the Baptist, S. Anthony and S. Agnes (109), which comes 
from S. Quirico d' Orcia, 



158 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

The fifteenth century, in which the most charming figure in 
Sienese art is Sassetta, opens really with Domenico di Bartolo, 
who was made free of the Guild of Siena in 1428, between which 
date and 1444 we find him active. He is of the school of 
Taddeo Bartoli, but has tried to assimilate some influence 
from Florence ; in this he was not very successful, and his 
rare work is often disappointing. One picture from his hand, 
signed and dated 1433, hangs in the Gallery of Siena — a 
Madonna and Child surrounded by Angels (164). 

As for Giovanni di Paolo (1403-82), a pupil of Fei, 
strongly influenced by Sassetta, his work is but a wild-flower 
in the garden of Sienese art. More than twenty of his works 
are here. His contemporary, Sano di Pietro (1406-81), 
the pupil of Sassetta, is one of the best painters of the school, 
a delicate and sumptuous master, whose works fill the fourth 
and fifth rooms of the Gallery and run over into the sixth, fifty 
pictures in all finding a place there. 

His fellow-pupil, Vecchietta (1412-80), is represented by 
four pieces in the Siena Gallery — the doors of a shrine (204), 
painted in 1445, a panel of S. Bernardino (205), a Madonna 
and four Saints (210), painted in 1465, and a S. Laurence 
(577). Delightful painter though he be, he does not charm 
us as his master can do ; nor has he, I think, the brilliance 
and versatility of his pupil, Francesco di Giorgio (1439- 1502), 
who was architect, sculptor, painter, and engineer, and who 
studied the Pollaiuoli of Florence. His works, rare elsewhere, 
are plentiful in Siena, ten pieces from his hand hanging in the 
Gallery, namely, Joseph and Potiphar's Wife (274), Susanna 
and the Elders (275), Joseph sold by his Brethren (276), an 
Annunciation (277), a Madonna and Child with an Angel 
(288), a Madonna and Child with S. Peter and S. Paul (291), 
a Madonna and Child with two Saints (292), and a fragment 
of an Annunciation (306), a Nativity (437), painted in 1475, 
and a Coronation of the Virgin (440), painted four years 
earlier. 

Another and far more subtle and charming pupil of 
Vecchietta was Neroccio di Landi (1447- 15 00), the very 




Gallery, Siena 



MADONNA AND CHILD 



THE GALLERY OF SIENA 159 

flower of the Sienese school of the fifteenth century. The 
five master works which hang in the Gallery are, perhaps, the 
loveliest things there. His masterpiece, the Madonna and 
Child with S. Jerome and S. Bernardino (281), is like some 
marvellous flower found pressed upon the gold of an ancient 
missal. His other works there are only less lovely — the 
Madonna with S. Catherine and S. Bernardino (285), the 
triptych of 1476 (282), the Madonna with six Saints of 1492 
(278), and the Madonna with four Saints (287). 

One of the best Sienese painters, Matteo di Giovanni 
(1435-95), always seems on the point of emerging into 
the more living art of Florence. Seven of his pictures 
are preserved in the Sienese Gallery, but not one of them 
can compare with his masterpiece, the Assumption of our 
National Gallery. His follower and imitator, Cozzarelli 
(1450-15 1 6), is not to be named with his master, though 
his work is by no means without delight. Seven works 
from his hand hang in the Gallery. 

Another lesser painter, but often a very charming one, 
though his later work is austere, Benvenuto di Giovanni 
(1436- 1 5 18), is represented in the Gallery by two works — 
the Ascension of 1491 and an earlier painting, a triptych 
with predella (435, 436) of 1475. 

His son and pupil, Girolamo di Benvenuto (1470-15 24), 
one of the last painters of the true Sienese school, is a lesser 
master well represented in the Gallery by nine works — the 
Nativity (342), the Deposition (369), a panel of four Saints 
(370), the Birth of the Virgin (372), the Dead Christ with two 
Angels (373), two pictures of the Madonna and Child (380, 
395), an Assumption (383), and the Madonna with Saints and 
Angels (414) of 1508. 

With Girolamo di Benvenuto we come into the sixteenth 
century, to the work of Pacchia, of Pacchiarotto, of Sodoma. 
But this is not Sienese work at all. It is a careful and too 
informed imitation of what other men have been content to 
do at last with the realistic tradition. 



XIV 

TO THE OSSERVANZA, IL MONIS- 
TERO, BELCARO, AND LECCETO 

ONE soon grows weary of the straitness of the ways 
within the city wall even in Siena ; and seeing that the 
country, a perfect and delicious garden, begins at every 
gate, it is not long before even the most hurried traveller 
finds himself compelled to venture forth, on foot or in vettura^ 
if only for an afternoon, to explore those winding and lovely 
ways that lead him through the olive gardens and vineyards in 
and out of the valleys that gird the city round about. And 
these valleys, these hills, hold treasures not less splendid, 
though much less numerous, than the great contado of 
Florence, which is so rich in little towns and villages and 
country churches full of the simple pictures and shrines of 
four hundred years ago. There are four adventures that 
every one will undertake from Siena, if, indeed, he be anything 
more than the merest tourist, and even the tourist can scarce 
omit them. I mean a visit to the Osservanza, and that is the 
briefest, to the monastery of S. Eugenio, to the Abbey of 
Lecceto, and to the villa of Belcaro.' 

And first as to the Osservanza. That is a good way to 
reach it which takes you on foot out of Porta Ovile, turning 

* These, at least, all will see who spend but a week in Siena ; these, 
then, I speak of here. The rest — the numberless walks and drives, the 
countless hidden villages and country churches — I hope to write of in a 
volume of •' Country Walks about Siena," similar to my •• Country Walks 
about Florence" (Methuen, 1908). 

160 



TO THE OSSERVANZA i6i 

left where the road reaches the railway, passing under the line, 
and following a steep and rough path to the convent. By 
this way you may go in half an hour; you will drive by the 
carriage road no quicker, and lose many of the views of the 
city the path gives you, and you will be six lire {prezzo Inglese) 
at least the poorer. 

The convent stands on the hill called Capriola, across the 
deep valley through which the railway runs southward from 
Siena, and commands some marvellous vistas. Modernized 
though the church has been, the whole place still has an air of 
the fifteenth century, and everywhere we find a remembrance 
of S. Bernardino, the founder who here restored the Observ- 
ance of the true Rule of S. Francis, which during the centuries 
many Papal dispensations had considerably relaxed. 

S. Bernardino of Siena, the S. Francis, as we might call 
him, of the fifteenth century, was born at Massa Marittima in 
the Senese in 1380, of the noble family of Albizzeschi. 
When he was but three years old we learn he lost his mother, 
and before he was seven he was orphaned, for his father, the 
chief magistrate of Massa, was carried off by the plague. He 
was brought up then by his Aunt Diana, who loved him, we 
are told, as her own son, and educated him piously, so that 
he was modest, humble, and devout, and even as a child took 
delight in visiting churches, serving at Mass, and, above all, 
in hearing sermons, in the art of preaching, of which he was 
to become so great a master. 

Beside the love of eloquence which we find so early in him 
there was also a great compassion for the poor, which, not less 
than his preaching, was to mark him out from his fellows. 
One day, we read, when he was still but a child, seeing his 
aunt send away a poor person from their door without an 
alms, for, indeed, there was but one loaf in the house, he 
exclaimed, " For God's sake let us give something to this poor 
man ; otherwise I will not dine nor sup this day." This, and 
other things, his aunt kept in her heart, encouraging him in 
pious customs, such as fasting every Saturday in honour of 
the Blessed Virgin. Then, at eleven years of age, he left 

M 



i62 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Massa to join his uncles in Siena, who put him to school there, 
and so modest was he withal, so pure of heart and conversa- 
tion, that the most impudent were kept in awe by his presence, 
and when the conversation grew too free, if he passed by, the 
very loosest rakes in that corrupt city would say, " Hush, 
hither comes Bernardino ! " And this was no more an 
effeminacy in him than in Cato, who in ancient Rome by his 
mere presence restrained the lewdness of a festival. Yet 
Bernardino did not altogether escape the touch of the brutality 
of his day, though he shamed that man who would have 
injured him. For, indeed, he was comely and beautiful, but 
his virtue secured him from more assaults, and he grew up to 
scourge the vileness of his time. 

Now when he had completed the course of philosophy, and 
had applied himself to the study of civil and canon law, at 
the age of seventeen he enrolled himself in the Confraternity 
of Our Lady in the Spedale della Scala, and there served the 
sick for four years till in 1400 the plague once more 
descended upon Italy, so that in Siena twenty persons 
died every day in the Spedale, and almost all the priests, 
ajx)thecaries, and servants belonging to the place were carried 
off. In this predicament Bernardino gathered about him 
twelve young men to aid him in the service of the Spedale, 
and for four months he kept the place in order. Then, the 
pestilence being over, he returned home sick at last of a fever 
brought on by his fatigues, which kept him abed for some 
months. He was scarcely recovered when he returned to the 
same works of charity, nursing with incredible patience during 
more than a year an aunt of his called Bartolommea, who was 
blind and bedridden. When she died, he retired to a Httle 
retreat he had found on the hill of Capraja, or Capriola, where 
to-day stands his Convent of the Observance which we are 
going to see. Here he lived in solitude, till he took the habit 
of S. Francis, among the fathers of the strict Observance, who 
had a convent on the hill of Colombaja not far away. After 
a year of novitiate, he made his profession on the day of the 
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, and his own birthday, it seems, 



TO THE OSSERVANZA 163 

in 1404. There he dwelt, always striving to make the Rule 
more strict, pleased with insults and humiliations. When he 
went abroad it was in a threadbare short habit, to be pelted 
with stones by the rascals of Siena, and greeted everywhere 
with contempt. He was of noble family, and his relations 
naturally objected to his utter disregard of their position in 
the city; they abused and reproached him; but he heard 
Christ whisper, " If thou lovest Me, follow Me." And now, 
having prepared himself for preaching, he was ordered to 
practise it. For long he suffered an impediment in his speech, 
but Madonna took it from him, and for fourteen years he 
laboured in Siena and her contado^ and he became there 
a light and a beacon to the whole Church. 

Of his labours throughout Italy this is not the place to 
speak. For him, at least, the truth was so clear and so full 
of all delight that his continual wonder was that men would 
not hold to it. " O ye sons of men, how long will ye be dull 
of heart ? " It is the burden of all his sermons. 

His day was an evil day, a day of indescribable vices which 
he combated lucidly and freely with all his strength. He 
would have had men love our Lord altogether. To this end 
he caused the Perugian, whose business it was to make cards 
for gambling, to make instead little boards on which the 
sacred name of Jesus was curiously inscribed in gold letters 
for a remembrance of His love for man. Nor was he without 
offence. Pope Martin V imposed silence upon him, and he 
acquiesced, but when the Pope had heard the truth he dis- 
missed him with his blessing, and pressed upon him the 
Bishopric of Siena in 1427. This he declined, no less 
resolutely than that of Ferrara, offered to him by Eugenius IV 
in 143 1, and that of Urbino in 1435. 

In Milan he rebuked the Visconti, and when the threat of 
death did not silence him, the Duke sought to bribe him, but 
he gave the money to those who for debt were in prison. 
This contempt for money appealed to Visconti. He could 
not imagine it. And ever after he venerated Bernardino as a 
saint. His travels covered all Italy ; he pacified Perugia and 



i64 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Ancona. In 1433 he went with the Emperor Sigismund to 
Rome, and then returned to Siena, where he founded this 
Convent of the Observance, and finished the other work he 
had begun, and in 1438 he was appointed Vicar- General of the 
Order of the Strict Observance in Italy. As General he 
laboured for five years, when in his age he began again to 
preach through all Italy. In 1444 he was again in Siena, and 
then, setting out for the Abruzzi, he was taken ill with fever 
on the road, and died at Aquila on 20 May, 1444, in the 
sixty-fourth year of his age. 

It is to this true son of S. Francis that we owe the Osser- 
vanza of Siena. The buildings he left were but a small part 
of those we see to-day, it is true. But the enlargements of 
Pandolfo Petrucci at the close of the fifteenth century were 
made in his honour, and the restorations at the end of the 
seventeenth century are in some sort a tribute to him. 

Passing under a fine loggia, you gain admittance by the 
great door, and find yourself at once in a big church of 
a single nave with a large choir, but without aisles or transepts. 
On either side all up the nave are chapels, and over their altars 
are pictures of great beauty. In the first chapel on the north 
is a picture of the Madonna and Child with Angels by Sano 
di Pietro, partly repainted. Over the altar of the second 
chapel is a splendid terra-cotta by Andrea della Robbia of the 
Coronation of the Virgin. Over the altar of the third chapel 
is another picture by Sano di Pietro, the Madonna and Child 
with S. James and S. Bernardino. Its predella is placed under 
a polyptych by Taddeo di Bartoli in the next chapel. 

On either side the high altar are Madonna and the Angel 
of the Annunciation by Andrea della Robbia. The altar itself 
contains relics of S. Bernardino in a fifteenth-century casket. 
In the choir on either side the window are a picture of 
S. Catherine with a donor by Girolamo di Benvenuto, and 
a picture of S. Bernardino, signed and dated 1439, by Pietro 
di Giovanni. 

The chapels on the south side of the nave are not less rich 
than those on the north. In that nearest the high altar is a 



IL MONISTERO 165 

splendid altarpiece of the Madonna and Child with S. Ambrose 
and S. Jerome, with above an Annunciation by Sassetta. This 
is the great treasure of the church, and perhaps the finest 
work by Sassetta in Italy, though the altarpiece at Asciano is 
perhaps as fine. In the next chapel is a Crucifixion ascribed 
to Sodoma, but certainly not from his hand. The last chapel 
contains a S. Anthony of Padua by Cozzarelli. A Pieta by 
the same artist is in the sacristy, where, too, may be seen the 
tombstone of the Magnificent Pandolfo Petrucci. In the 
crypt we find the cell of S. Bernardino. 

The beauty of the country in which the Osservanza stands, 
the splendour of the views thence, for one may not only look 
upon Siena, but on the perfect shape of Mont' Amiata south- 
ward and northward to Monte Morello, invite one to linger 
in the country, and so it was by many a byway and olive 
garden that I came at last to II Monistero. The less adven- 
turous, less haphazard traveller, however, will do well to return 
from the Osservanza to the city, and to leave it again by the 
Porta S. Marco ; the Monistero lies a little further from that gate 
than the Osservanza from Porta Ovile. And, indeed, it is but 
few who will care to visit these two shrines in one day ; they 
are best seen and enjoyed if an afternoon be devoted to each. 

The way out of Porta S. Marco lies as nearly south as may 
be, and the road winds down picturesquely from the city, 
giving you your first real idea, perhaps, of its remoteness and 
height. The views all the way are fine. At the gate II Monis- 
tero comes in sight and beyond and beyond Mont' Amiata and 
Cetona, and between them the bizarre stronghold of Radicofani. 

In the eighth century, when, as we have seen, the first 
quarrel arose between Siena and Arezzo about the jurisdiction 
of a convent, Siena was administered by a certain Warnefred, 
and it was he who founded the Abbey of S. Eugenio, known 
to-day, when it is no longer in the hands of religious, but a 
country house, as II Ministero. It is thus possibly the most 
ancient abbey in all the Granducato. One climbs from the 
valley to reach it on its hill over the road to Grosseto, which 
it dominates. The situation is very splendid, and one is not 



i66 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

surprised to learn that it was here in 1270 the Count Guido di 
Montfort encamped with the army of the Guelf League only 
ten years after Montaperto. Guido was Vicar of King Charles 
of Anjou, and was intent on spoiling Siena and the coniado. 
Nearly three hundred years later — in 1553 — Pietro Strozzi 
erected fortifications here on the eve of Siena's fall. The 
abbey always belonged to the Benedictines, who in 1446 
received here, by order of Pope Eugenius IV, the monks of 
Badia a Isola. The great abbey was suppressed in the 
eighteenth century, in much the same way as its sister house 
on Mont' Amiata. 

To-day all we see is a fine baroque church, a few cloisters 
and buildings, and a magnificent villa. The church has still 
some treasures left, though they are fast slipping away. On 
either side of the nave, by the high altar, are frescoes of the 
Resurrection and the Crucifixion by Benvenuto di Giovanni. 
In the chapel, on the north side, is a picture of the Madonna 
and Child with Angels by Francesco di Giorgio. In the 
chapel on the left side there is nothing now, but till lately 
there hung here a fine Madonna by Ambrogio Lorenzetti. 
On either side the high altar are SS. Peter and Paul by 
Vanni ; while by the west door is a dead Christ watched 
by two Angels by Fungai. The sacristy is a little gallery of 
pictures containing a spoiled Madonna by Duccio, and S. 
Ansano and a Bishop by Taddeo di Bartoli. 

From the gardens of II Monistero you may see many fine 
things — the city of Siena and Mont' Amiata — but among 
those within reach none finer than the tufted and lofty villa 
of Belcaro, dark with ilex. To reach Belcaro from Siena you 
must leave the city by the Porta Fontebranda, whence it is a 
walk or a drive of some three miles. It is certainly not 
further from II Ministero, and the way is not less beautiful. 

Belcaro is one of the most splendid of those fortified villas 
of the fourteenth century which remain to us. The Salimbeni 
held it in 1384, then the Marescotti ; in 1482 it was ordered 
to be dismantled. Since then it has passed through many 
hands: the Bellanti have held it, and the Turamini, who 



^ OF THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 



TO BELCARO AND LECCETO 167 

reduced it to a pleasure-house, building a chapel, which was 
painted in 1535 by Peruzzi. Fortified again in 1554 for the 
great siege, it was taken by the Spaniards in the same year, but 
not without exacting toll. 

From the beautiful rampart over the age-old ilexes we have 
to-day one of the most splendid views of the country about 
Siena, with the city herself in the distance. In a small room 
at the end of this noble pacing is a picture of Madonna with 
two Saints by Matteo di Giovanni, with two Trecento panels. 
The frestoes of Peruzzi in the chapel have been spoilt, but in 
a chamber on the ground floor of the fortification is a ceiling 
frescoed by his hand with the Judgment of Paris. 

Away to the north of Belcaro, some three miles, I suppose, 
to walk or drive, stands the Abbey of Lecceto, occupied in 
summer by the students of the Seminario of Siena. The 
forest of ilex which surrounded it, and from which it had its 
name {lecci)^ has for the most part been cut down, and, save 
in summer, the place is almost deserted to-day, a contadino 
and his family being its only inhabitants for three parts of 
the year. 

But that forest was of very ancient planting and of great 
fame. There, it is said, the converts of S. Ansano took refuge, 
and in 388 S. Augustine visited it by reason of its quietness 
and the holy life of its hermits : while it is said that S. Monica, 
S. Jerome, S. Dominic, and S. Francis enjoyed its hospitality. 

The place was well known, too, for its miracles ; in the 
beginning a holy hermit, by merely touching the ground with 
a reed, had caused miraculous waters to spring forth and 
transform a desert into a fair garden, whose flowers had 
wonderful medicinal qualities; while here, too, were found 
the precious stones of Calvary, like diamonds and rubies, 
gUstening white and rosy red, the tears and the blood of our 
Redeemer. Indeed, the whole place was full of mystery. 
The woods which surrounded it, the legends, some of them 
gay and delicious stories almost worthy of the " Fioretti," 
caused it to be considered everywhere as a reverend and 
holy place. 



1 68 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

The most human, and perhaps the most characteristic, of 
its sons has in his " Assempri " left us many records of the 
place. Fra Filippo, who is Mr. Hey wood's hero in his 
fascinating and too little known work, "The Ensamples of 
Fra Filippo," ^ tells us of many of these miracles, and among 
them I choose, for its own sake, the following : — "^ 

"In that place," says Fra Filippo, "abode very holy and 
virtuous friars, who were exceeding strict and fervent in the 
observance of the rule [the place had long been in the hands 
of the Augustinian Friars] and of the ceremonies. Now the 
Prior of the said Convent was a very holy man and venerable 
friar, by name Bandino dei Balzetti of Siena. And it came 
to pass upon a certain day at noon, the same being the time 
of silence when the friars were in their cells, that the blessed 
Fra Bandino looked, and lo ! a thief had stolen the ass of the 
Place and was leading it away. But rather than break silence 
himself or cause the friars to break it, he suffered the thief to 
lead away that ass. Nevertheless he betook himself to the 
church and kneeled down before the picture of the Saviour 
which was above the altar, and he besought God for that thief 
that He would turn him to repentance and would save his 
soul. Now the thief had departed with the ass and had well- 
nigh gone forth from the Selva. But when he came to the 
place where he should have gone out, the ass stood still, as it 
had been a rock embedded in the ground ; neither for all 
that he could do would the ass pass out of the Selva. 
Wherefore the thief, fearing to be overtaken, was minded to 
depart thence and to leave the ass. But in like manner, when 
he sought to go forth from the Selva, the ass became, as 
it were, a wall before him, and on no wise could he go 
go forth. Then, seeing himself in such straits, he was pricked 
to the heart, and he vowed a vow unto God and unto the 
Virgin Mary that if he were permitted to go thence he would 
return to that Convent and would restore the ass, and from 
thenceforth would amend and correct his life. And when he 

* Published by Torrini of Siena, 1901. 
'^ Cf. Hey wood, op. cit., p. 13. 



TO LECCETO 169 

had so vowed, the ass turned back of his own accord, and 
anon he found himself free to move. And he returned with 
the ass and asked for the Prior of the Place, to wit, the blessed 
Fra Bandino, who was prior. And to him he delivered the 
ass and confessed his fault with many tears and besought 
pardon, and he told him 'of the miracle which had happened. 
Then the blessed Fra Bandino forgave him and caused large 
alms to be given to him. And with much love and charity 
he entreated him to sin no more, but to amend his life. 
And when he had promised so to do he sent him away in 
peace." 

That is but one of many such wonders ; indeed, so vastly 
numerous became the miracles, that about 1336 the prior, in 
his robes, "betook himself to the place where their dead had 
been buried, and in the name of holy obedience charged the 
blessed dead to abstain from obtaining further miracles from 
God ... for by reason of the vast concourse of people who 
besieged the convent the pious meditations of the monks were 
in no small degree disturbed." 

By that time the place had become an embodiment of 
mediaeval legend. It was deserted in the fifteenth century for 
fear of the companies of adventure, and was at last suppressed 
in 18 10, when it was given to the Seminario Vescovile of Siena 
as a summer residence. 

What the life of those friars was may be seen in one of the 
cloisters, where a series of frescoes sets forth in contrast the 
life of the convent and the Hfe of the world. They are prob- 
ably the work of Paolo di Maestro Neri. In another cloister 
are restored frescoes of the fifteenth century, in which are 
depicted scenes of the life of S. Augustine and again of the 
friars. Over the church door is another fresco, a Christ by 
Paolo di Maestro Neri, and some remnants of work, possibly by 
him, remain in the church itself, which now contains scarcely 
anything of interest but a tomb of some knight of the Saracini 
family. 

S. Leonardo al Lago, a hermitage of the convent, suppressed 
in 1781, lies in the plain some few miles beyond. The church 



170 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

there alone remains as in old time ; its splendid frescoes in 
the choir of the Life of the Virgin are by some follower of the 
Lorenzetti. ?..;.' >i , : 

The real charm, however, of Lecceto does not lie in the 
works of art that by chance rather than by design remain to it. 
We find it rather in the beauty and tranquillity of the place 
itself. So that, when we set out again on the road to Siena, it 
is after all with some regret, a real sense of loss, as though 
something we had loved were gone out of our lives, and we 
knew not whether we should find it again, or be able to 
reconcile ourselves to its eternal absence. 



XV 
ASCIANO 

AS you gaze southward from the platform of Siena, from 
the Porta Romana or the bastion of S. Barbara, you see 
before you, across the narrow gardens that hem Siena in and 
fill all her valleys with plenteousness, a country of a very 
different character, that has much in common with the bare 
uplands about Volterra, a strong and masculine country of 
vast and barren undulations, of low and restless clay hills, very 
tragic in aspect and full of mystery. 

Almost invisible at midday in the glare of the summer sun, 
often hidden in early morning by the mists of the valleys, this 
strange wilderness reveals itself only at evening, when it seems 
to lie like a restless sea between the city and that far away 
fair mountain, Mont' Amiata, whose beautiful and pure out- 
line nothing can ever trouble or modify. Forbidding at first . 
little by little, as day by day, evening by evening, you gaze on 
that vast loneliness, it begins to attract you, to call you, to 
fascinate you ; its little cities half-hidden here and there in the 
sombre billows of clay or suddenly shining out in a glint of 
stormy sunshine, or delicately revealed in some virginal dawn, 
beckon you from Siena, till at last you set out to find them 
where they are repeating their beautiful names — Asciano, 
Buonconvento, Montepulciano, Pienza^ S. Quirico, Montal- 
cino, Radicofani, Chiusi. 

If you leave the fruitful heights of Siena by train to explore 
that wonderful desert, the first place you will come upon will 
be the walled town of Asciano, lying in a verdant hollow of 

171 



172 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

that barren sea of clay. Always a place of some importance, 
since it held the Ombrone valley, Asciano is now the chief 
centre of this wild district between Siena and the southern 
hills ; for though it is far from the great Via Francigena, it is 
the junction of the railway system which joins Northern with 
Southern Tuscany, which leads from Florence and Siena to 
Rome, to the mountains of Umbria and the marshes of the 
Maremma. 

The ancient capital of this strange country which now looks 
to Asciano was Buonconvento, on the Via Francigena, some 
twenty miles south of Siena. It was not through Asciano but 
through Buonconvento that all our fathers passed to Rome, 
and before our fathers those Imperial armies which so use- 
lessly laid waste Italy. If we follow the railway, then, we 
shall be departing from the ancient way. But, in fact, to the 
leisured traveller it will make but little difference whether he 
traverses the mediaeval highway to Buonconvento or goes by 
train to Asciano. In either case he must cross that region of 
solitude and desolation, and in either case he will find himself 
at last in Buonconvento. But if he journey by the road which 
runs almost due south out of Porta Romana he will miss 
Asciano, which is worth almost any trouble to see. 

Arguing thus, I determined for once to follow the railway, 
and I was confirmed in my choice by the chance I was thus 
offered of a glimpse of the battlefield of Montaperto, and, 
better than any battlefield, of some rare pictures that I knew 
were hidden thereabout. So I set out by train, and it was 
early in the morning. 

Now between Siena and Asciano the railway crosses a good 
part of that desert of clay hills which gives, as I think, so 
much of its character to Siena, and, indeed, to the Sienese. 
There is, and indeed there can be, but little to see : only the 
desert has its own beauty and strength, and may be loved at 
last for its own great sake. But before entering that sombre 
country, at some six miles from Siena the train draws up for a 
moment at the little wayside station of Arbia, without a village 
or even a house to account for it. It is there, however, you 



ASCIANO 173 

must get out if you would visit the battlefield of Montaperto, 
a somewhat tiring, sentimental journey that might easily 
become a bore, but that on the way to the scene of the 
famous fight you find the Church of S. Ansano a Dofana, 
and close by the chapel which marks the supposed scene of 
the martyrdom of S. Ansano, the apostle of the Sienese. 

At S. Ansano, in what was once a convent and is now a 
parish church, I found a fine Madonna by Baldassare Peruzzi ; 
and it is to this sixteenth-century painter and pupil of Pacchia- 
rotto and assistant of Pintoricchio that we owe the little chapel 
called II Martirio, some quarter of a mile away to the west, 
which marks, as it is said, the scene of S. Ansano's martyrdom. 
Here I found a splendid picture, painted in 1328, by Pietro 
Lorenzetti, a Madonna and Child surrounded by Angels, with 
S. Nicholas and S. Anthony Abbot, which is worth all the 
fatigue of the way. 

I turned away at last from this exquisite and smiling love- 
liness to the sombre and masculine country which lay around, 
and through which, after a long and useless tramp over the 
battlefield, I made my way back to the station. It was 
evening. All around me that vast and empty world whose 
tremendous outlines seem to express an endless domination 
was softened in the level light of the setting sun. On its 
desolate and tragic majesty a marvellous and dehcate beauty 
seemed to have fallen from the sky, which, trembling with 
light, seemed to bless it and to call forth all that was best and 
most characteristic in that sombre strength which it alone was 
able to reveal and to transfigure. Everywhere around me lay 
that barren sea of clay, billow after billow rolling away to the 
horizon, broken only by the far hills. Every line and seam 
and channel in that desert of clay was visible in the evening 
light, and seemed to reveal to me for the first time the 
incredible age of the world. Then little by little it faded 
away, the merciful shadows crept up from the valleys and 
wrapt everything in a delicious coolness, a wonderful embrace. 
It was quite dark when I came to Asciano. 

Asciano is a little town half-hidden in the fruitful clefts of 



174 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

this desert of clay, that lies, it might seem, so restlessly 
between the mountains. Half-hidden in its delicious valley, 
it lies some distance from the railway, with which it seems to 
have but little in common, so little, in fact, that, as any 
traveller may see as he approaches by train, the line quite 
passes it by so close that you might drop a stone on to its 
roofs, yet the station is set more than a mile away from the 
town in a desolate place in the valley of the Bestina. 

With a good thousand years of life behind her, Asciano 
has left us little history, and, in fact, there seems but 
little to know. Her story is that of most of the towns in the 
contado of Siena. From the ninth century we find the Conti 
Scialenghi dominating her till they were divided into various 
branches, and were called Manenti, Ardenghi, and Berar- 
denghi. Of these last were the potent Cacciaconti and 
Cacciaguerra, and that Caccia d' Asciano whom Dante named 
among the luxurious fools of Siena in the twenty-ninth Inferno. 
In 1 1 69 Ildebrando of the Cacciaguerra renounced his portion 
in Asciano to the Republic of Siena, and it was then that 
Asciano first came under the influence of the city, which 
ordered, as it is said, the destruction of the ancient fortress 
which stood on the highest part of the old castello, where now 
stands S. Francesco. But Asciano did not cease altogether to 
be under the dominion of the Scialenghi till 12 12. Then in 
1234 the castello was besieged by the Florentines, who took it. 
A little later it came back into the power of Siena and was 
refortified, as it was again in 1351. Thereafter it remained 
Sienese, till in 1554 it fell, with all the rest of the contado^ into 
the hands of Cosimo I. 

But though her story can have but little interest for us, 
Asciano, as we soon find, is to be loved, is to be loved for 
her own sake, and strictly for what she remains to-day, one of 
the most charming of all those delightful towns that lie like 
flowers on the skirts of Siena. Her situation is delicious, 
cosily hidden among the vineyards in the billows of the 
desert; her people are honest and courteous and bid you 
welcome, her inn is clean and humble, and, knowing nothing 



ASCIANO 175 

of strange comforts, is all for home, and she has treasures that 
many a place more famous might envy. 

She stands, as I have said, in a cleft of the desert. She 
seems, indeed, gradually to have slipt down a lowly hill-side 
till she should be lost in the shade of the valley. Her oldest 
citadel, the castello proper, is set on the summit of a low hill. 
There of old stood the fortress, where S. Francesco stands 
to-day. But this fortified place, called II Prato, now in ruin, 
seems to have little to do with the town proper, which is some 
distance away, lower down the hill-side, and utterly separate 
from it. On the other side of Asciano, and lower still — in fact, 
in the bottom of this narrow cleft in the hills where it opens 
into the valley of the Ombrone — stands the borgo called 
Campalboli, close by the Siena gate, but in truth not joined 
to the true town, but separated from it by the country as the 
Prato is. 

But the true splendour of Asciano Hes in her churches, 
which are to be found aUke in her three divisions. There is 
S. Agata in the town proper, the Collegiata since 1542, a fine 
and interesting building of the transition period. It is per- 
haps here that Asciano keeps her greatest treasure. For in 
the choir behind the high altar, on the left, is a magnificent 
altarpiece, an early work by Sassetta, representing the Birth 
of the Blessed Virgin, with scenes from her life. Mr. Berenson 
in his illuminating study of this painter ^ tells us that this 
triptych is " in all probability earlier than 1436 . . . and may 
even have been painted before 1430." It is certainly the 
earliest important work by Sassetta that has come down to us. 
It must have been one of the greatest and noblest works any- 
where to be seen in Europe when it was new, for it is full of a 
sweet gravity, precision, and daintiness that still entrance us 
and lift up our hearts. In the midst, in a beautiful and lofty 
room before a cheerful fire — Brother Fire, of whom S. Francis 
sang, comely and joyful, masterful and strong — sits some sister, 
maybe of S. Anne, with the Blessed Virgin — our Life, our 

* B. Berenson "A Sienese Painter of the Franciscan Legend" (Dent, 
1909)1 p. 56. 



176 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Sweetness, and our Hope — in her arms. A servant warms 
some linen before the crackling flames, while to and fro 
through the sunlit room angels softly pass and repass, intent 
on the service of their Queen. Nor are they forgetful of 
S. Anne, who, still abed, is served by one of them, while 
another waits on guard, fascinated by the little Virgin. To 
the left without sits S. Joachim, talking, it may be, with the 
doctor, while a little lad, perhaps S. Joseph, runs in from the 
garden, charmingly visible, with its well and cypress and 
border of flowers, through an open doorway. Above are 
three scenes : in the midst the Madonna and Child with four 
Angels, to the left the death, and to the right the funeral of 
the Blessed Virgin. Nothing can exceed the intimate loveli- 
ness of this work. 

Around the choir and guarding it, as it were, are set the 
four Evangelists of Fei. Then in the north transept one comes 
upon a fine picture by Taddeo di Bartoli of the Madonna and 
Child, and an Annunciation by some pupil of his, together 
with an altarpiece by Giovanni di Paolo and two Saints by 
Matteo di Giovanni. In the south transept are four Saints by 
a pupil of Taddeo di Bartoli, and a large fresco by some 
painter near to Pacchia.^ Lastly, to the left of the main 
entrance is a fresco of the Pieta by some pupil of Sodoma's. 

The other church within the town proper is that of S. 
Agostino. Here in the nave, over the second altar on the 
right, is a part of an altarpiece by Matteo di Giovanni, con- 
sisting of four Saints, the Annunciation, and the Blessed 
Trinity, with five predelle scenes of great beauty. The centre 
panel of this altarpiece, which completes it, is the great and 
holy treasure of the church. It stands over the high altar, 
and represents the Madonna and Child, and can only be seen 
with some ceremony. Nothing can be more lovely than this 
work of Matteo's, and, indeed, it is one of the finest works of 
the Sienese school anywhere to be found. Under the Madonna, 
over the high altar, is a beautiful gold Crucifix of the fourteenth 
century. 

^ According to Mr. Perkins. 




ALTAR-PIECE 



Collegiata Asciaiio 



OF THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 



ASCIANO 177 

Over the second altar, on the left in the nave, is a picture of 
the Nativity of much beauty, by Pietro di Domenico. Here, 
indeed, we see Christ born as the dawn is breaking over the 
hills and the angels sing in the twilight. 

From S. Agostino it is, after all, but a little way back past 
S. Agata and along a country road up to the old castello^ where 
now, instead of a fortress, S. Francesco stands. It is interest- 
ing, though mournful, to note how completely this church has 
been spoiled and its character changed. It was once a build- 
ing in the Italian Gothic manner, such as we still find so 
lovely and spacious in S. Croce of Florence. It had five 
pointed windows on either side the nave, and between and 
under them the walls were covered with frescoes by Giovanni 
d' As,ciano, some fragments of whose work are still visible. 
All that, however, was changed in the seventeenth century, 
when the windows were blocked up or squared or destroyed, 
the whole church was whitewashed, and six baroque altars, 
whitewashed, too, save where they were painted to represent 
marble, were set up to fill the place with their bastard splen- 
dour, the gaiety of a salon, the insincerity that marked the 
Catholic reaction. And so to-day the church is no longer a 
charming and pure country maiden, but a broken-down 
woman of the town, shabby and outmoded. 

Nevertheless some notable and lovely things remain to it 
amid the ruin that fools have contrived. First there are 
those two wooden statues of life-size, made in the fifteenth 
century, representing the Annunciation, that stand on either 
side of the main entrance. Then there is, fairer far, the 
masterpiece of Lippo Memmi, a Virgin and Child with donor, 
which hangs at the entrance to the chapel, on the extreme 
south of the choir. It must be one of the loveliest things in 
Italy, rare and precious, and of an astonishing quality, and, 
like so many of the best pictures in Southern Tuscany, it has 
not yet — Deo gratias — been imprisoned in some museum or 
gallery, but still gladdens the simple of heart in this ruined 
sanctuary, where, among the debris, even yet we may pray to 
God. 

N 



i;8 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

One lingers long about S. Francesco, perhaps for the sake 
of the view, for from the platform before the church you may 
see right across the desert of clay in which Asciano lies hke a 
little secret spring, and trace, indeed, much of the way that 
must presently be followed to Monte Oliveto, the great oasis 
and sanctuary of this wilderness. 

Before setting out thither, however, I did not forget to visit 
the true borgo of Asciano, the little village called Campalboli, 
a few hundred yards outside the Siena gate. There in the 
midst I found a chapel with a fresco of the Assumption of the 
Blessed Virgin by Benvenuto di Girolamo, and a fresco of 
three saints — S. Lucy, S. Roch, and S. Jerome — by the same 
painter. The church close by has frescoes of the Seasons by 
Ambrogio Lorenzetti, but I was not permitted to see them. 

And having returned to the town and taken my last look at 
Sassetta's altarpiece in S. Agata, I made ready to set out 
where the road led to Monte Oliveto. 



XVI 
MONTE OLIVETO 

IT is really on the way from Asciano to Monte Oliveto that 
the true character of that vague and wonderful desert that 
lies between the fruitful hills of Siena and the forest uplands 
of Mont' Amiata is revealed, its fierceness, terror, and bitter- 
ness. Its mere aspect in any large view of it cannot, I think, 
be better described than by likening it to one of those modelled 
plans in relief which are displayed in the geographical room of 
a museum. Like them, this country seems to have but little 
relation to anything we have really seen. Its vast, irregular 
surface, the colour of ruddy clay, restless as the sea, full of 
chasms, guUies, precipice and abyss, scored and channelled 
everywhere by the rain, and almost completely sterile, both 
startles the traveller by its unexpected strength and makes him 
afraid in its fierce desolation. It has something of the energy 
and splendour of the landscape Dante describes with such 
concentrated fury in the " Inferno," and, indeed, it may well 
have inspired him, for it is certain that neither at Florence nor 
elsewhere in his exile can he have seen anything to compare 
with it. 

But I give altogether a wrong impression of this desert 
country if for one moment I have suggested that it is either 
mean or ugly. It is neither. On the contrary, it has a 
masculine and ascetic beauty to be found nowhere else in 
Italy, and a certain largeness and strength that constantly 
remind one of Castile. Moreover, on the road from Asciano 
to Monte Oliveto there is much of great beauty in the land- 

179 



i8o SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

scape beside the beauty of the desert. There is the majestic 
loveliness, the incomparable outline of Mont' Amiata, the 
bizarre and haggard splendour of Radicofani, and both these 
wonders burst upon one suddenly and dramatically after 
climbing the longest hill some half-way to the monastery. 

There are many outlines of surpassing splendour in Italy : 
there are the hills of Cortona as seen from Montepulciano, 
there are Monte Cimino and Monte Venere as seen from 
Abbadia S. Salvatore, there are the hills of Vallombrosa as 
seen from Vincigliata, the whole splendour of Val d' Arno as 
seen from Empoli, and the Monti Pisani as seen from the 
leaning tower of Pisa; but there is no other outline that I 
have seen, even in my dreams, that may compare with that 
of Mont' Amiata as seen from three different points — the 
Porta Romana of Siena, the platform behind the Cathedral of 
Pienza, and this desert hill-side between Asciano and Monte 
Oliveto. Modern Italy has wantonly destroyed half her 
patrimony in a kind of pique, to humour fools or to mark 
what she conceives to be her " progress," whither no one 
knows ; but not yet has she thought or been able to destroy 
much of the superhuman loveliness with which God has 
endowed her. No doubt in time, if modern society should 
endure — and it cannot endure — these things also will be lost 
to us, but that time is not yet, and, in spite of the chemical 
works of the valley of Spoleto, the mines of Mont' Amiata, 
which are slowly destroying the inhabitants, and various other 
brutalities that we observe from time to time, it is probable 
that this view will remain during our time one of the true 
wonders of the world. 

But if one seeks destruction one has not far to go for it — 
only, indeed, as far as the monastery itself, hidden away 
among the worst precipices of this desert, which here the 
monks had made to blossom like the rose. 

The great block of brick buildings which form the monastery, 
with its church, cloisters, and conventual house, are the centre 
of a veritable oasis in this bare country, of an oasis which 
little by little the desert is claiming again. For the place is 



MONTE OLIVETO i8i 

no longer a monastery, the monks having been deprived by 
the jealous Italian Government not only of the fruits of their 
labours, the houses they had built, the smiling garden they 
had contrived in the desert, but of the right to labour at all. 
Nor in robbing them has modern Italy seen fit herself to fill 
their place. Her policy has been, here as elsewhere, that of a 
mere anarchist, eager in destruction, but too often careless or 
incapable of construction, or even, as here, of carrying on the 
good work of the monks she has robbed. The Abbey of 
Monte Oliveto, a monastery no longer, is now a sort of pension 
for forestieri — certainly the only people who ever come here, 
dependent upon the Accademia delle Belle Arti of Siena. 
The loss is Italy's and ours ; for while we as mere travellers 
may still find here the hospitaHty we seek, the Italian con- 
tadino and labourer are deprived of their employers ; the land 
carefully and laboriously redeemed and cultivated by the 
monks has been lost, and a host of people left without 
employment. It is a striking spectacle, not uncommon in 
Italy, where the true Italians, the common people, have been 
more ruthlessly exploited by the middle classes, the bagmen 
from Piedmont, and all the riff-raff of the risorgimento, than 
anywhere else in Europe. 

It was about the year 1320 that there began to rise among 
these barren clay hills and dreadful precipices this Archicenobio 
in which the Congregation of Olivetani had its origin. The 
region in which it stands, so bitter and savage and sterile, 
was known as the desert of Accona, and, save where the 
splendid labour of the monks has redeemed it, it is still an 
unimaginable wilderness. 

The man to whom in the first place we owe the foundation 
of this house, so eager in its splendid work of the redemption 
of the soil from sterility and waste, is a certain Bernardo of 
the Tolomei of Siena, who fled into this solitude in the year 
in which Dante's Emperor, Henry VII, died at Buonconvento, 
not so far away, the year 13 13. Bernardo was the son of 
Mino Tolomei, the head of the Ghibelline branch of this 
house, and of Fulvia Tancredi. He was born in 1273, and 



1 82 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

seems to have been christened not Bernardo but Giovanni. 
As a boy he was studious and pious, and as a young man 
became the leader of the social life of Siena, and seems to 
have exercised no little influence in the politics of the Republic. 
It was, however, his learning which chiefly delighted his fellow- 
citizens, and it was indirectly his learning that was the cause 
of his conversion. One day, we read, as he was about to 
deHver a lecture on some philosophical subject to the Studio 
of Siena, he was struck blind. In his darkness visions came 
to him, and presently, after praying to the Blessed Virgin, he 
recovered his sight, and instead of a philosophical discourse he 
preached a sermon, De Contemptu Mundi^ in which he de- 
plored the condition of Italy, the exile of the Popes, and the 
general state of enmity in which the world then lay. Then, 
giving all he had to the poor, only retaining a few acres of 
barren land he possessed here in the desert of Accona, he left 
Siena for this bitter place with his two noble friends, Patrizio 
Patrizi and Ambrogio Piccolomini. The first thing they set 
about was the building of a tiny chapel, which they did with 
their own hands, and when it was finished they placed it 
under the protection of S. Scholastica. Then, changing his 
name, Blessed Bernardo began to redeem the land round 
about. All through that desert men heard of him and came 
to see him, thinking him mad. Then certain Guelfs in Siena, 
smelling a Ghibelline plot, tried to poison him, but he was 
warned from heaven of his peril, and escaped. Then both 
Bernardo and Ambrogio Piccolomini were accused of heresy, 
and summoned to Avignon. But the Pope received them 
with kindness, and sent them back with a recommendation 
to the great Bishop of Arezzo, Guido Tarlati, who at the 
Pope's bidding gave them the Rule and the habit of S. Bene- 
dict, and sent for the Camaldolese, who inaugurated the new 
Order under the name of the " Congregation of the Blessed 
Virgin of Monte Oliveto," and all this was confirmed by the 
Pope in 1319. 

Now when Blessed Bernardo had achieved so much, he 
began to build the church and the convent we see to-day, 



MONTE OLIVETO 183 

not without opposition, for we read that over the new build- 
ings " the Archangel Michael and the devils renewed the war 
they had fought in heaven before God made the world." The 
Pope, who seems to have appreciated the Blessed Bernardo at 
his true worth, began now to send him on several missions for 
the reconciliation of the factions in many of the cities of 
Central Italy ; but the noblest work of Bernardo and of his 
fellow-monks was accomplished in the Black Death of 1348, 
when, under his direction, they left the convent two by 
two for the different towns of the Sienese contado^ with 
instructions to nurse the sick and minister to the dying, and 
to assemble all together in Siena two days before the Feast of 
the Assumption in August in their last new convent outside 
Porta Tufi. All assembled, as he had said, safe and sound, 
and he spoke with them for the last time. For the city of 
Siena had suffered more severely than any other place from 
that appalling pestilence, some eighty thousand persons dying 
in the city and the suburbs {ne^ borghi dentro alia citta) ; 
indeed, Tommaso Fecini tells us that out of every ten Sienese 
nine died, and a few days later Blessed Bernardo sickened and 
died also. From him their father, or from the pestilential 
city itself, the rest of that company also took the infection, the 
greater number of them dying with those they would have 
succoured . 

Those who returned to Monte OUveto were a remnant — a 
remnant, but ready to go on. They built and tilled the soil 
till what had been the most desolate spot in a wilderness of 
desolation blossomed into smiling vineyards and olive gardens 
and fields of corn. So that not much more than a hundred 
years later, in 1459, Pius II, Piccolomini, coming there in 
summer-time, writes of it, describing it in detail, and adding, 
*' Happy are the monks who dwell in such a place." He 
remained there three days, eagerly searching for the tombs of 
his ancestors. Again, about a hundred years later, in 1536, 
the Emperor Charles V was entertained here with two thou- 
sand men. It was about this time that the church we now see 
was built, being added to later in 1777. 



1 84 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

It is difficult to understand the policy of a Government 
which suppresses a community from whom Italy has received 
nothing but benefits. Nevertheless so it is, and no doubt the 
stupidity which has allowed this fruitful estate to return to 
wilderness will one day be called to account when it is too 
late. The last Abbot of Monte Oliveto, the holy and cour- 
teous Abbate di Negro, of the family of S. Catherine of 
Genoa, died in 1897. He remembered the now empty 
cloister and choir filled by fifty white-robed monks. And 
then the peasants sang in the vineyards, and the corn was 
golden in July and reaped with joy, and the whole country-side 
was glad in those days. And now ? — well, now there is only 
a horrid silence.^ 

The chance wayfarer to-day must expect but a pitiful 
welcome from the few monks who remain in the convent 
as servants of the Government. If he wishes to sojourn there 
it is not as a pilgrim he must go, to visit a noble and holy 
place, but as an enthusiastic student of the wretched art of 
Sodoma, of the splendid art of Signorelli. And so he must 
provide himself with a ticket, which he must obtain at the 
Accademia delle Belle Arti in Siena. Armed with this permit, 
which he must send to the " Sopraintendente del gia 
Arcicenobio di Monte Oliveto Maggiore " two days in 
advance of his advent, he is graciously permitted, at a 
cost of 5 francs a day, to remain two days by the Italian 
Government to contemplate the wanton ruin it has contrived 
out of a smiling garden. The ordinary English traveller, how- 
ever, seeing that he has strewn his own land with ruins more 
terrible by far, will make little of this. The rape of Monte 
Oliveto will not move him any more than murdered Glaston- 
bury has done these three hundred years. He will wander 
about the tangled garden and the dying woods, and pass half- 
indifferently through the beautiful quiet rooms, the half-empty 
library (the books have for the most part been stolen and are 

^ The Olivetani have been suppressed almost everywhere, like the rest 
of the Orders. Their General now lives at the little monastery of Settig- 
nano. May they long be left in peace 



MONTE OLIVETO 185 

now in Siena), and the noble cloisters. The wickedness of it, 
the wanton stupidity that has drained away the life of such a 
place in mere barbarian revenge, will probably not touch him. 
Be it so. He has come to see the frescoes of Signorelli and 
Sodoma, which, if he could but see it, are a continual and 
unanswerable impeachment of all he now sees going on 
there around him ; but he is intent, if at all, on the study of 
art ; the life of the people, brutally sacrificed to make a Roman 
holiday, scarcely interests him. 

Well, it is to be hoped that the art he will find there, all 
that is left now, a mere dead corpse of what was once pulsing 
with life, will please and amuse him. It might seem doubtful. 
Signorelli's work is but a fragment, and that is not of his best, 
and as for Sodoma's, though there be plenty of it, it is what 
he has taught us to expect. It quite fills three sides of the 
great cloister, and makes, of course, the fame of the place. 

It would be an error in criticism and a sin against that 
sense of the due proportion of things which is the true base 
of sanity, to expect from Sodoma the art, or the faith that 
produced the art, of Giotto. He was of the sixteenth century, 
a painter of great self-consciousness, and what seems to us 
of an intolerable insincerity, the production of the study and 
imitation of many masters. Even here his work is not 
original, but in every sense a continuation of that of a much 
greater painter, Luca Signorelli. And, curiously enough, 
what is valuable in it seems to be due to the influence of 
the great and heroic man who in 1497 painted here eight 
frescoes of the life of S. Benedict as told by Pope Gregory 
the Great in his " Dialogues," and then departed for Orvieto 
to achieve his masterpiece in the Cappella di S. Brizio of the 
Duomo there. Signorelli, no doubt acting under instructions 
from the monks, had begun in the middle of the story. It 
was left for Sodoma, who began to paint here in 1505,10 
begin and to finish the story. 

Vasari, the inimitable story-teller of the Italian Painters, 
tells us that Sodoma " was a man of joyous life and cheerful 
manners, a lover of pleasure, and ever ready to contribute to 



i86 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

the amusement of others, even though it were not always in 
the most creditable manner, for which cause he obtained more 
than one by-name, among others that of Mattaccio^ or the 
arch-fool ; whereat, instead of being displeased and resenting 
the same, he would laugh and glorify himself — nay, he would 
make sonnets and canzonetti upon these opprobrious epithets, 
which songs he would then sing to the lute, and that without 
reserve." 

He had, too, a fancy, Vasari tells us, for keeping all sorts of 
animals in his house — " badgers, squirrels, apes, cat-a-moun- 
tains, dwarf asses, horses and barbs to run races, magpies, 
dwarf chickens, tortoises, Indian doves, and other animals of 
similar kind — whatever he could get into his hands, in short ; 
he was always surrounded by children and young men, in 
whose society he took much pleasure ; and beside the animals 
above named he had a raven, which he had so effectually 
taught to speak, that this creature counterfeited his voice 
exactly in some things, more especially in replying to any one 
who knocked at the door — nay, this last he did so perfectly 
that he seemed to be the painter's very self, as all the Sienese 
well knew. The other animals also were so tame that they 
constantly assembled about his person while he was in the 
house, and came round all who approached him, playing 
the strangest tricks and performing the most extraordinary 
conceits ever seen or heard, insomuch that the dwelling of 
this man seemed like the very ark of Noah. 

" This unusual manner of living, the strangeness of his pro- 
ceedings, with his works and pictures, some of which were 
certainly very good ones, caused him to have such a name 
among the Sienese . . . that he was considered by many to 
be a very great man. Wherefore Fra Domenico da Leccio, 
a Lombard, being made General of the Monks of Monte 
Oliveto, and Sodoma going to visit him there, the principal 
abode of that Order, some fifteen miles distant from Siena, 
found so much to say and used so many persuasions, that he 
received commission to finish the stories which had been 
partly executed on a wall of that monastery by Luca Sig- 



MONTE OLIVETO 187 

norelli. The subject which had been chosen was from the 
life of S. Benedetto, and Sodoma undertook the work for a 
very low price, with the addition of his expenses and that of 
certain boys, colour-grinders, and other assistants by whom he 
was attended. But the amusement which these fathers found 
in his proceedings while he worked in that place is not to be 
told ; nor could one easily describe the pranks which he 
played there, insomuch that the monks there bestowed on 
him the name of Mattaccio^ before alluded to, in requital of 
his follies. 

"Returning to the work itself, however, Sodoma having 
finished certain stories in a manner which showed more 
readiness of hand than care and thought, the General com- 
plained of that circumstance, when // Mattaccio replied that 
he worked according to his humour and that his pencil only 
danced in harmony with the sound of the coins, adding that 
if the General would pay more, he was quite able to produce 
much better work. Thereupon Fra Domenico promised to 
pay him better for the future, when Sodoma painted three 
stories, which still remained to be executed in the angles, with 
so much more of thought and care than he had given to the 
others, that they proved to be much better works." 

It is perhaps doubtful where Sodoma began to work on the 
frescoes of the story of S. Benedict. As has been said, he 
followed Signorelli, whose work is concerned with the latter 
scenes. The narrative begins in that corner of the cloister 
nearest the church, but the most important paintings in the 
series are those in the corners of the cloisters, namely, 
S. Benedict leaving home, the Broken Cribble, the Tempta- 
tion of the Monks, the Reception of the Novices Maurus and 
Placidus, and the Destruction of Monte Cassino.^ Eugene 
Muntz thought that this last fresco was the first to be painted. 
However that may be — and it might seem almost impossible 
to decide the matter now — we shall take the frescoes in their 
narrative order, beginning with that in which S. Benedict 

' Cf. R. Hobart Cust, *' Giovanni Antonio Bazzi " (Murray, 1906), p. 98. 
This is the best and most trustworthy of all works on Sodoma. 



1 88 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

leaves his father's house at Norcia in order to go to Rome to 
study. S. Benedict, the Patriarch of our Western monks, was 
descended from a family of note, and was born about the year 
480. The history of the great Order he founded is for cen- 
turies the history of monasticism. With his advent monasticism 
proper may be said to have begun, for the Benedictines always 
have been, and are still, not only the greatest community in 
the Catholic Church, but its most civilizing force, its most 
cultured class, as it were its aristocracy. Of the five Orders 
of Western Christendom, then, the Benedictine stands first. 
Of the three Rules that of S. Benedict is the most profound, 
the most comprehensive. In something less than five hundred 
years this great Order began to produce branches of Black 
and White monks and nuns. Thus the Benedictine Order is 
the parent of every monastic Order in Europe. It is natural, 
then, that its remotest descendants should look behind their 
mediatory founders, as here the Blessed Bernardo Tolomei, to 
their great parent, S. Benedict himself.^ 

The first thing S. Gregory, one of the greatest of his sons, 
tells us of this great Saint is that he early left his father's house 
at Norcia to go to the Roman schools (i),^ and it is with this 
incident Sodoma opens his series of frescoes in the Saint's life. 
We see Benedict setting out with his nurse. In Rome he 
acquired learning, it is true, but, disgusted at the licentious- 
ness of his companions, he decided presently to bid the world 
farewell {2) ; and in the second of Sodoma's frescoes we see 
him setting forth from the Eternal City. His nurse, Cyrella, 
who " tenderly loved him," went with him till they came to a 
place called Aeside, and there she borrowed a vessel to 
winnow some wheat ; but for negligence the vessel fell to 
the earth and was broken in two pieces. And Cyrella fell 
to weeping, and when S. Benedict saw it he had great pity, and 
prayed to God, and after made the vessel as whole as it had 
been before (3). Then they of the country took it and hung 

^ For a full explanation of the origin and development of the Religious 
Orders see my " Italy and the Italians " (Blackwood), p. 156 et seq. 
^ The numbers refer to the frescoes. 



^ Of THE 

UNIVERSITY 



\ 



OF 



f 



MONTE OLIYETO 189 

it on the front of the church in witness of this fair miracle. 
"Then," S. Gregory tells us, "then left S. Benedict his nurse 
and fled secretly and came into a hermitage, where he was 
never known of no man but of a monk named Romanus, 
which ministered to him meat for to eat (4). And because 
that there was no way from the monastery of Romanus unto 
the pit where S. Benedict was, he knit the loaf in a cord and 
so let it down to him, and because he should hear when 
Romanus should let down the bread he bound a bell on the 
cord, and by the sound thereof he received his bread, but the 
devil having envy of the charity of that one and of the re- 
fection of that other, cast a stone and brake the bell, but 
nevertheless Romanus left not to minister to him (5). It 
happed that there was a priest on an Easter Day that had 
arrayed his dinner for himself, and our Lord appeared and 
said : ' Thou ordainest for thyself delicious meats, and My 
servant dieth for hunger in such a pit,' and named him the 
place. Then the priest arose and bare his meat with him, 
and sought so long that he found S. Benedict in great pain. 
When he had found him he said to him : * Arise now and take 
thy meat and refection, for it is Easter Day' (6). ... It 
happed after this that a black bird that is called a merle came 
on a time to S. Benedict and pecked with his bill at his visage, 
and grieved and noyed him so much that he could not put it 
from him, but as soon as he had made the sign of the cross 
anon the bird vanished away (7). After that came to him a 
great temptation of the flesh, by which the devil tempted him 
in showing him a woman, and he burnt sore and was inflamed 
n his courage, but anon he came again to himself (8). . . . 
It happed that the abbot of a monastery was dead, and for the 
good tendance of this holy man S. Benedict, all the monks 
of the abbey gave their voices and elected S. Benedict for 
their abbot (9), but he accorded not thereto nor agreed to 
them, for he said that his conditions and manners were not 
according to theirs. Notwithstanding, he was vanquished, 
and so instantly required that at the last he consented. But 
when he saw they lived not nor were ruled according to 



I90 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

their religion and Rule, he reproved and corrected them 
vigorously. And when they saw that they might not do 
their wills under him, they gave him venom meddled with 
wine for to drink, but S. Benedict made the sign of the cross 
over it and blessed it, and anon the vessel brake in pieces, 
which are of glass (lo). . . . Then went S. Benedict again 
into the desert, where God showed him many signs and 
miracles, and founded there twelve abbeys. 

" Now it happened that in one of the abbeys was a monk 
that might not endure long in prayers, and when the other 
of his fellows were in prayer he would go out of the church. 
Then the abbot of that abbey showed this to S. Benedict, and 
anon he went to see if it were true. And when he came he 
saw that the devil in likeness of a little black child drew him 
out of the church by his cowl. Then S. Benedict said to the 
abbot and to S. Maur [the reception of S. Maur and 
S. Placidus is not recounted by S. Gregory, but is included 
by Sodoma (12)] : *See you not him that draweth him out? ' 
They said : * Nay.' Then said he : ' Let us pray to God 
that we may see him.' When they had made their prayer, 
S. Maur saw him, but the abbot might not see him. The 
next day S. Benedict took a rod and beat the monk, and then 
he abode in prayer like as the devil had been beaten, and 
durst no more come and draw him away, and from then 
further he abode in prayer and continued therein (13). 

" Of the twelve abbeys that S. Benedict had founded three 
of them stood on high rocks, so that they might have no water 
but by great labour (11). Then came the monks to him and 
prayed him that he would set these abbeys in some other 
place because they had great default of water. Then went 
S. Benedict about the mountains, and made his orisons and 
prayers much devoutly ; and when he had long prayed he 
saw three stones in a place for a sign, and on the morn, when 
the monks came for to pray, he said to them : * Go ye to such 
a place where ye shall find three stones, and there dig a little, 
and ye shall find water — our Lord can well provide for you 
water.' And they went and found the mountains all sweating 



MONTE OLIVETO 191 

where as the three stones were, and there they digged, and 
anon they found water so great in abundance that it sufficed 
to them and ran down from the top of the hill unto beneath 
into the valley (14). 

" It happed on a time that a man hewed bushes and thorns 
about the monastery, and his axe or instrument of iron that 
he hewed with sprung out of the helve and fell into a deep 
water; then the man cried and sorrowed for his tool, and 
S. Benedict saw that he was sore anguished therefor, and 
took the helve and threw it after into the pit, and anon the 
iron came up and began to swim till that it entered into 
the helve (15). 

" In the abbey was a child named Placidus, which went to 
the river for to draw water, and his foot slid, so that he fell 
into the river, which was deep, and anon the river bare him 
forth more than a bow-shot. And when S. Benedict, which 
was in his study, knew it, he called S. Maur, and said that 
there was a child, which was a monk, that was being drowned, 
and bade him go to help him. And anon S. Maur ran 
upon the water like as it had been on dry ground, and his feet 
dry, and took up the child by the hair, and drew him to land, 
and after, when he came to S. Benedict, he said that it was 
not by his merit, but by virtue of his obedience" (16). The 
next fresco (17) tells of the drunken monk who saw the devil 
issue forth from a bottle. It is not recounted by S. Gregory. 

" There was a priest named Florentius which had envy of 
S. Benedict, and he sent him a loaf of bread envenomed (18). 
After, when S. Benedict had this loaf, he knew by the inspira- 
tion that it was envenomed. He gave it to a raven that was 
wont to take his feeding of S. Benedict's hand, and com- 
manded him to bear it unto such a place that no man should 
find it. Then the raven made semblant for to obey to the 
commandment of S. Benedict, but he durst not touch it for 
the venom, and fled about it howling and crying. . . . When 
this priest, Florentius, saw that he could not slay S. Benedict, 
he enforced him to slay spiritually the souls of his disciples. 
He took seven maidens, all naked, and sent them into the 



192 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

garden to dance and carol for to move the monks to tempta- 
tion (19). When S. Benedict saw the malice of Florentius 
he had fear of his disciples and sent them out of that 
place." 

The next fresco (20), perhaps by Riccio, recounts how 
S. Benedict sent S. Maur to France and Placidus to Sicily. 
S. Gregory omits this incident. There follow the frescoes by 
Signorelli (21-28). 

"Now, when Florentius saw that S. Benedict and his 
monks went out, he demened great joy and made great 
feast, and anon the solar [the upper chamber] fell upon him 
and slew him suddenly (21). When S. Maur saw that 
Florentius was dead, he ran after S. Benedict, and called him, 
saying : ' Come, for Florentius is dead.' When S. Benedict 
heard this he was sorry for the perilous death of Florentius, 
and because S. Maur was glad for the death of his enemy, as 
him seemed, he enjoined him penance therefor. 

"After this he went to Monte Cassino (22). ... It happed 
on a time that as the monks should lift a stone for a work of 
an edifice they might not move it, then there assembled a 
great multitude of people, and yet they all might not lift it, 
but anon as S. Benedict had blessed it, they lifted it anon. 
Then apperceived they that the devil was upon it, and caused 
it to be so heavy (23). And when they had a little made the 
wall high, the devil appeared to S. Benedict, and bade him go 
see them that edified. Then S. Benedict sent to his monks 
and commanded that they should keep them well, for the 
devil went to destroy them. But ere the messenger came to 
them the devil had thrown down a part of the wall, and had 
therewith slain a young monk. Then they brought the monk 
all to bruised in a sack to S. Benedict, and anon S. Benedict 
made upon him the sign of the cross, and blessed him and 
raised him to life, and sent him to the work again (24). A 
layman of honest life had a custom once in the year to come 
to S. Benedict all fasting, and on a time as he came there 
was one that bare meat accompanied with him, and desired 
that he would eat with him, but he refused it. After, he 



MONTE OLIYETO 193 

prayed him the second time, and yet he refused it, and said 
he would eat no meat till he came to S. Benedict. At the 
third time he found a fair fountain, and a much delitable 
place, and began sore to desire him to eat with him, and at 
the last he consented and ate. And when he came to 
S. Benedict j he said to him : ' Where hast thou eaten ? ' Which 
answered, ' I have eaten a little.' ' O, fair brother, the devil 
hath deceived thee, but he could not deceive thee the first 
nor the second time, but the third time he hath surmounted 
thee.' Then the good man knelt down to the feet of S. 
Benedict, and confessed him of his trespass (26). 

" Attila, the King of Goths, would once prove if S. Benedict 
had the spirit of prophecy, and sent to him his servant, and 
did so array him with precious robes, and delivered to him 
a great company as he had been the king himself. When 
S. Benedict saw him come, he said to him : 'Fair son, do off 
that thou wearest, it is not thine,' and the man fell down anon 
to the ground because he mocked the holy man, and died 
anon" (27). 

The next fresco shows us Benedict receiving the king 
himself (28), an incident not recounted by S. Gregory. 
Through the next fresco, the last of Signorelli's, a doorway 
has been cut. Sodoma continues the series with S. Gregory's 
prophecy of the destruction of Monte Cassino (29). There 
follow six frescoes, five of which follow S. Gregory closely : — 

" It happed over all Champagne, whereas he dwelt, that 
so great a famine was in the country that much people died 
for hunger. Then all the bread of the abbey failed, and there 
was within but five loaves for all the convent ; when S. 
Benedict saw that they were abashed, he began debonairly 
to chastise and warn them that they should have their hearts 
on high to God, and said to them : ' Wherefore are ye in so 
great misease for bread ? If ye have none this day, ye shall 
have it to-morrow.' Now it happed that on the morrow they 
found at their gate two hundred muddes of meal which were 
properly sent from God, for never man wist from whence 
they came. When the monks saw that they thanked God, 
o 

OF TH£ 



194 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

and learned that they ought not doubt nor of abundance 
nor of poverty (30). 

" It happed on a time that S. Benedict sent his monks for 
to edify an abbey, and said that at a certain day he would 
come see them and show them what they should do. 
Then the night before that he had said to come, he appeared 
to the master and to his monks, and showed to them all the 
places that they should build, but they believed not this 
vision, and supposed it had been but a dream. Then when 
they saw that he came not, they returned and said to him : 
' Fair father, we have abided that thou shouldst have come to 
us like as thou promisedst us.' Then answered he : ' What 
is that ye say? Remember ye not that I appeared to you 
that night that I promised you, and enseigned and told how 
ye should do ? Go your way, and do in such wise as I have 
devised to you in the vision ' (31). 

" There were two nuns nigh unto his monastery which were 
of much noble lineage, which were much talkative and re- 
strained not well their tongues, but tormented overmuch him 
that governed them. And when he had showed this to 
S. Benedict, he sent them word that they should better keep 
silence and rule their tongues or he would curse them. But 
they for all that would not leave it, and so anon after they died 
and were buried in the church. And when the deacon cried 
in the end of the Mass that they that were accursed should go 
out of the church, the nurse that had nourished them, and 
that every day had offered for them, beheld and saw that, 
when the deacon sang so, they issued out of their sepulchres 
and went out of the church, and when S. Benedict knew 
hereof he offered for them himself and assoiled them. Then, 
after that, when the deacon said so as afore, they never issued 
out after as their nurse had seen them (32). 

" There was a monk gone out for to see his father and 
mother without licence and blessing of his abbot, and the day 
after he came thither he died ; and when he was buried in the 
earth, the earth cast him out again, and so it did twice. Then 
came the father and mother to S. Benedict, and told him how 



MONTE OLIVETO 195 

the earth threw him, and would not receive him, and prayed 
that he would bless him. Then took he the Blessed Sacra- 
ment, and made It to be laid on the breast of the corpse, and 
when they had done so they buried him, and the earth threw 
him no more out, but received the body and held it (33). 

" There was a monk that could not abide in the monastery, 
and prayed so much to S. Benedict that he let him go, and 
was all angry, and anon, as he was out of the abbey, he found 
a dragon with open mouth ; and when he saw him he had fear 
that he would have devoured him, and cried loud : * Come 
hither and help me ! Come hither, for this dragon will devour 
me ! ' Then the monks ran, but they saw no dragon, and 
brought again the monk trembling and sighing. Then the 
monk promised that he would never depart from the 
abbey" (34). 

The last fresco (35) tells how S. Benedict, with a look, 
broke the chains of a peasant that some knights had bound. 
It is not related by S. Gregory. 

Thus ends this great legend, as we have it now, without 
relating the death of S. Benedict or his visit to S. Scholastica. 
But other frescoes are still under the whitewash on the stairs 
leading to the smaller cloister. 

Whatever we may think of these works, and assuredly fine 
as Signorelli's work is, fine as some of Sodoma's work may 
be, they cannot compare for beauty or for simplicity with the 
work of Giotto in Padua, or in the Maddalena Chapel at 
Assisi or in the Upper Church of S. Francesco there, or with 
the work of Simone Martini in the same church in the chapel 
of S. Martino. What Vasari has to tell us of Sodoma's work 
here, inaccurate as it proves to be, seems to be authentic 
in so far as it suggests that the master did not take himself 
very seriously. One cannot paint the life of a saint with the 
unction of a Simone or a Sassetta, and at the same time care 
so little for one's work that one does it well or ill according 
to the price offered. " To do despite to the General and the 
monks," Vasari tells us, " Sodoma depicted the story of the 
driest Fiorenzo, the enemy of S. Benedetto, who brought a 



196 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

number of public dancing-women to sing and frolic around 
the monastery of that holy man, thereby to tempt and disturb 
the devotions of the fathers. In this story II Mattaccio, who 
was as eccentric in painting as in other actions of his life, 
exhibited a dance of nude figures which was altogether 
offensive, and, as he knew that this would not be permitted, 
he refused to let any of the monks see his work while it was 
in progress. When this story was uncovered, the General at 
once commanded that it should be instantly destroyed and 
done away with, but Mattaccio, after much idle talk, and 
seeing that the father was in great anger, added draperies to 
all the figures in the picture, which is among the best of those 
to be found in the Monte Oliveto." 

No, it is not in this spirit, nor by such a mountebank, that 
great works of art are achieved. What there is of splendour 
here we owe to Signorelli, even in the work of Sodoma. 

That cloister so genuinely famous is, however, by no means 
all there is to be seen at Monte Oliveto. The church is 
unfortunately of the seventeenth century, and contains little 
of interest; only, indeed, the stalls by Fra Giovanni da' 
Verona, brought hither in 1815 from S. Benedetto of Siena 
to replace those taken in 18 13 to the Duomo. But the 
Library is charming, with its few books bound in white, 
a noble room with an antechamber reached by a flight of 
steps, at the further end, where are two ancient pictures : one 
a Madonna by some painter near to Segna, the other a 
S. Bernardino, possibly by Francesco di Giorgio. 

It is, however, in the convent itself, its cells and corridors 
and offices, that we shall take most delight, in the conversation 
of the few monks who are left, not to serve God but us, and in 
the ruined gardens and bosco that still offer us flowers and 
shade in the long summer days. And wandering there, we 
still find remnants, not merely among the flowers, of the 
ancient sweetness and beauty that must once have filled the 
place as with some perfect plain-song. Over the entrance 
tower, for instance, we find still Madonna enthroned with her 



MONTE OLIVETO 197 

little Son — a polychrome terra-cotta from the hand of Giovanni 
della Robbia. The companion figure of S. Benedict on the 
other side is only a work of the atelier^ but it is charming 
nevertheless. 

It is with such things as these, with the old blessed silence, 
the same great landscapes about us, and the kindly company 
of the good monks that we must try to reconcile ourselves to 
what we have lost for the sake of United Italy. And since 
it is manifestly impossible that we should regret the price we 
have had to pay all over Italy for so truly splendid, so 
obviously noble, incorruptible, and heroic a thing, we shall 
gladly remember that we have not yet realized all that is to 
be demanded of us by those who, battening on the body, 
bruised and bleeding, of her we have loved, call themselves 
her sons. 



XVII 

TO RAPOLANO, SERRE, AND 
LUCIGNANO 

IN journeying southward from Siena before the advent of 
the railway two roads lay open to the traveller : the 
ancient and most direct road to Rome, the Via Francigena, 
which followed the Arbia till it was lost in the Ombrone at 
Buonconvento, and the road that left Siena by the Porta 
Ovile and passed slowly down into the Val di Chiana 
at Rapolano. The first notable town after leaving Siena, 
then, for our forefathers was Buonconvento or Rapolano. 
The railway has changed all this, and has made Asciano, in 
its secret green valley, with its quiet inn, its beautiful 
churches, and its pictures, the real point of departure for 
us in any journey southward from Siena. For Asciano to-day 
is not only, as I have said, the centre of the railway system 
which serves Southern Tuscany, but is also the key to the 
Val deir Ombrone and the pass there to the Val di Chiana. 
Of old, so far as Siena was concerned, either Buonconvento or 
Asciano held the Ombrone valley, the one where it met the 
Val d' Arbia, the other at its head. The town of Lucignano 
held the Val di Chiana, and the key to the pass between the 
valleys was Rapolano. The position that Asciano holds will 
thus become plain when I say that from thence we may 
journey by train south-west to Buonconvento on the Grosseto 
line, or south-east through Rapolano and Lucignano into the 
Chiana valley to Chiusi on the line to Rome. We can then 
from Asciano choose our route southward; we can either 

198 



RAPOLANO, SERRE, AND LUCIGNANO 199 

explore the Ombrone valley and so make our way to Grosseto, 
or we can explore the Chiana valley and so come at last to 
Chiusi, on the verge of Umbria. In either case we shall end 
at last at the foot east or west of Mont' Amiata, which 
dominates the whole region. The road I propose to follow 
leans rather to the second of these ways than to the first. 
From Asciano I prefer to go to Rapolano and so into Val di 
Chiana, stopping short, however, of Chiusi at Montepulciano, 
and crossing the hills by Pienza to S. Quirico d' Orcia, and 
coming into the Val dell' Ombrone at Torrenieri. I followed 
this route merely for its convenience, because it led me best 
through Southern Tuscany and with the least return upon 
my way. 

So I made my way back from Monte Oliveto to Asciano at 
evening, and the next morning early I set out by train for 
Rapolano. 

Strictly speaking in the Valle dell' Ombrone, Rapolano is 
the key to the pass from that valley into the Chiana. It is an 
ancient walled town still beautiful, with ruined fortifications 
and vast gates, possessing of old, and now too, medicinal 
baths which have a great reputation in this part of Tuscany. 
Its most ancient possession, however, is its pieve of S. 
Vittorio — like all ancient pievi^ not within the paese, but at 
the foot of the hill on which the little town stands. It existed 
in the eighth century, and appears in the first quarrel between 
Siena and Arezzo ; ^ but in 1776 the church was abandoned 
and \^Q pieve translated to the church of S. Maria Assunta, in 
the midst of the town, originally an abbey of Olivetan monks, 
which now bears the name of S. Vittorio in S. Maria 
Assunta. 

Rapolano originally made part of the lordship of the 
Berardenga and of the Scialenga of Asciano. But as early 
as 1 1 75 some of its signori placed it under the protection 
of Siena. About thirty years later, in 1208, the Florentine 
chroniclers tell us that their compatriots took the place, as 
they certainly did in 1253. In 1260, however, the battle of 
* See supra t p. 77. 



200 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Montaperto restored Rapolano to the Sienese, but in the 
meantime the town had acquired Guelf sympathies, and in 
1266, according to Andrea Dei, the Sienese occupied it to 
suppress these rebels, who held the castello. In 1306 
Ghibelline Arezzo attempted to seize it, no doubt on 
account of its strategical importance, and the Sienese, who 
were quite unable to defend it, destroyed its walls. It can 
have had no very considerable place in the confused history 
of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when all Central 
Italy lay under the terror of the condottieri^ and its fate, like 
that of every other city in the Sienese contado, was finally 
sealed in 1554, when it was sacked by the Austro-Spanish- 
Medicean army, and a little later included in the 
Granducato. 

Its only interest for us to-day lies in the treasures of 
art it may possess. Nor are we disappointed in it, for in 
the little Church of the Fraternita, over the pulpit, hangs 
an old panel of the Madonna and Child by Pietro 
Lorenzetti (?). In the Church of S. Vittorio hung two 
pictures that after much search my companion and I at 
length discovered in the Syndic's house, though what they 
were doing there or how they came there is more than I can 
say. The better of the two is one of the finest pictures of the 
Sienese school in all Tuscany, a Madonna and Child with 
S. Sigismondo and S. Antonio Abate by Neroccio, that rare 
and exquisite master ; the other is a S. Anthony of Padua by 
Cozzarelli. Charming as Rapolano is, one does not linger 
there, for there is no good inn, and there is much to see in 
the country round about. 

At Serre, for instance, a little town in a cleft of the hills 
some five miles south of Rapolano, in the pieve there, is a 
fine picture of the Madonna and Child on a gold ground by 
Ambrogio Lorenzetti. Few, indeed, visit this little place, so 
difficult of access and quite off the highways of travel ; but it 
is in such places, and in such places only, that Italy still lives. 
Not in the rascaldom of the cities which live on the curiosity 
of the foreigner and seek to exploit, while they daily dis- 



RAPOLANO, SERRE, AND LUCIGNANO 201 

member, that Italy which they have murdered, but in such 
quiet places as Serre will you find all that is left of the spirit 
which has made our world so sweet. Happily there are many 
such places left to us as a refuge even in Tuscany in these 
days that see us so surely clanging back into barbarism. 

I returned to Rapolano towards evening, and took train for 
Lucignano, a journey of some twenty minutes or so. The 
railway passed quite round Rapolano, and offered me a 
complete view of its walls, its gates, and terraced gardens. 
And after passing Poggio S. Cecilia ^ on the left, another of 
the Berardenga castelli^ I found I had left the barren country 
of clay hills that lies about Asciano, and had entered a 
deliciously wooded valley full then of an evening peace. 
Presently, in the serene and golden light, the castello of 
S. Gimignanello came into sight on the right. S. Gimig- 
nanello, too, was part of the lordship of the Counts of the 
Scialenga, a picturesque place of towers. Then at last the 
valley opened as far as the eye could see ; the great plain of 
the Chiana, drained now, rich and healthy, stretched away 
between the great hills, on one of which, at the very head of 
the valley, Lucignano was firmly set, a fine towered city aloft 
on her hill. 

It cannot be less than five miles from the station of 
Lucignano to the town, and it is uphill all the way ; but the 
place is worth all your trouble to reach it, if only for the great 
view which greets you from the gate, whence you may see the 
vast and beautiful line of the Apennines across the great 
valley, and the city of Cortona, like a white flower, on the 
skirts of those wonderful but terrible hills. There, too, for 
the first time something new comes into the landscape, a 
new spirit or atmosphere, something soft and mysterious, 
a light that never was on any Tuscan hills — and, indeed, it is 
Umbria that lies there before you, secret and yet visible in 
every line of the hills, in the sweetness of the valley, in the 
mystery of the mountains. Something hard and severe has 
suddenly gone out of the landscape, and the dryness of 
* See note 8, p. 329 infra. 



202 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Tuscany is behind you and you look once more on Umbria 
and the great and beautiful hills, dark with ilex and chestnut, 
through which run the mysterious, soft valleys of the Saints, 
where S. Francis and Blessed Angela pass and repass, 
lingering yet, and seem to stand for something in the 
world, for something, perhaps, we have lost for ever and 
can spare so ill. 

Lucignano, thus so nobly placed, was, as I have said, at 
one time a castello of very great importance to Siena, for it 
commanded the Val di Chiana where the confines of the 
Republic marched with those of Arezzo. Its situation is, in 
fact, magnificent, for it stands on the highest point of a vast 
bastion of high land that is thrown out by the Chianti hills, 
dividing the great valley here into two parts. It thus enjoys 
for our delight one of the widest prospects of the beautiful 
valley of the Chiana, and from its gates we may see almost all 
the cities, towns, castelli^ and villages with which that vast 
plain is peopled. 

With all its splendour of situation, however, thQ castello of 
Lucignano does not appear to be of very ancient foundation, 
not older, indeed, than the thirteenth century, when, although 
It seems to have enjoyed a great measure of self-government, 
it was a civil and religious dependent of Arezzo, that city 
which is set under the hills at the head of the main Chiana 
valley where it meets the Val d' Arno. So securely does the 
power of Arezzo seem to have been established in the place, 
that a month after Montaperto (1260) we find the Bishop 
Guglielmo Uberti, then at the head of the government of that 
city, signing a decree in Lucignano in October, 1260. After 
the victory of Campaldino (1289), however, in which the 
Florentines, with the Sienese and other allies, defeated the 
Aretines, Lucignano was handed over to the Sienese, and this 
was confirmed in the Church of S. Francesco, outside 
Lucignano, in June, 1289. It proved to be the worst day's 
work that had yet been done for Lucignano. Even from the 
first the sympathies of the people of Lucignano seem to have 
been with Arezzo, and even so late as 1336 Giovanni Villani 



RAPOLANO, SERRE, AND LUCIGNANO 203 

speaks of the place as Lucignano d' Arezzo, which seems to 
prove at least that the hold of Siena was disputed. 

In 1337 Lucignano came into the power of Perugia, and in 
1355 she was still Perugian, and in 1357 formed an important 
Perugian outpost in the war with Siena. Then in 1370, in 
Perugia's war with the Pope, she gave herself to Siena, ^ 
but the hired condottieri in 1384 sold her to Florence. 
Indeed, the place, small as it was, a mere fortress in the 
eyes of the contending parties, was doomed to captivity. 
In desperation, to save themselves from slavery, in 1390 
the people of Lucignano placed themselves, their town, and 
its territories under the protection of the Visconti of Milan, 
the most bitter enemies of Florence. This led to their 
coming again under the jurisdiction of Siena, and the con- 
ditions then imposed by that RepubHc are very interesting 
as an example of what Siena conceived to be the right way 
to govern a subject people. 

In the first place Siena insisted that the castello and the 
territory of Lucignano should allow that they were for ever 
under the jurisdiction of her Commune \ then that the subject 
town should receive as Potesta a citizen of Siena, whom she 
should pay every six months 400 florins of gold ; that every 
year she would send to the Duomo of Siena for the Feast of 
the Assumption a palio of scarlet of the value of at least 
60 florins, accompanied by eight guards, each of whom 
should be furnished with a candle of a pound weight; 
that each year she would buy from Siena 600 bushels of 
salt at the price of 30 soldi the bushel; that she would 
permit the Commune of Siena to build a fortress within 
her territory ; that she would pay every year to the Republic 
300 florins of gold as tribute; that she would not exact 
pedagium from the citizens of Siena; that she would permit 
all Sienese merchandise to pass freely between the two 
Communes ; that all her landholders and citizens now and 
ever should become Sienese citizens; that all her notaries 
should now and ever matriculate in the University of Siena. 

^ See W. Heywood, "A History of Perugia" (Methuen, 1910), 
pp. 168, 217, etc. 



204 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

As for the castello^ or fortress, mentioned in this convention, 
it was built by a certain Bartolo Bartoli within three years at 
a cost of 6,825 florins. And we find that the dominion of 
the Sienese was confirmed by a treaty with Florence in 1404. 

I have given the convention which ensured the rule of 
Siena in Lucignano in some detail because it allows us to see 
exactly what the rule of Siena was like in her contado^ That 
rule seems to have been as disastrous as it was short-sighted. 
Lucignano was to be ruled solely for the benefit of Siena. 
Here is the failure in little of all modern Continental Europe 
in the government of subject peoples. Siena ruled her 
contado not for its own good, but for hers. Lucignano 
had to pay yearly a large tribute, as well as vast taxes. 
Her trade was circumscribed and handicapped for the sake 
of Siena. The result might^have been foreseen if the Sienese 
had had any aptitude for government. But those who cannot 
rule themselves are not likely to succeed with others. Instead 
of strengthening the cities under her rule, and so raising a 
strong and even an impregnable bulwark of prosperity, con- 
tentment, and loyalty against the enemy, Siena quietly 
strangled, for purely selfish ends, every city that came within 
her grasp. Lucignano is but the figure of them all. 

As the fifteenth century advanced the population of Lucig- 
nano decreased, and with its population went whatever wealth 
had once belonged to it. These evils had grown to such 
proportions in 1440, when after only thirty-six years of Sienese 
rule the population had decreased by half, that the wretched 
town tried to obtain a diminution of the tribute and of the 
tax. But it was the whole system, the whole point of view, 
that was at fault. However, Siena conceded the request — a 
fact which in itself speaks for the state of affairs — to this 
extent, that Lucignano was to pay 1,000 lire a year instead of 
40Q florins, and the 300 florins of tribute were reduced to 100 
on condition that the other 200 were spent in repairing the 
walls and the gates ; the 600 bushels of salt were also reduced 
to 300. 

* See note 9, p. 330. 



RAPOLANO, SERRE, AND LUCIGNANO 205 

After considering this example of her government we are 
not surprised that the Austro-Spanish troops had so easy a 
victory. When the Imperial army took Lucignano in 1553 
there can have been little to boast of in the exploit. 

No one, I think, who has once seen Lucignano would 
willingly pass her by again without paying her a visit. Her 
splendid situation, her quiet country aspect, her green hill- 
side, her cypresses, her spring of water make the place a 
paradise quite apart from anything else she may possess. But 
it is impossible that so alluring a citadel should be quite 
devoid of pictures, those true wild-flowers of Italy : and if 
there be such a place in all Tuscany it is certainly not 
Lucignano. 

The old Church of S. Francesco, where, as we have seen, 
the Bishop Guglielmo Uberti of Arezzo signed a decree in 
October, 1260, is full of works of the Sienese school — frescoes 
by Bartolo di Fredi, by Pietro di Giovanni, by Fungai, and 
Signorelli. 

On the south wall is a fresco by Bartolo di Fredi of the 
Triumph of Death, and on the same side of the church over 
the third altar a Madonna and Child which Mr. Perkins gives 
to Luca Signorelli. It is a late work, but not without some- 
thing of the fervour and beauty of all the master's work. Over 
the high altar is a splendid polyptych of the Madonna and 
Child with Saints by Bartolo di Fredi. In the choir is a fine 
fresco by Fungai of S. Francis receiving the Stigmata. Then 
in the north transept we find more of Bartolo di Fredi's 
work — frescoes of scenes from S. Francis's Life, the Madonna 
and Angels, S. George and S. Christopher, and the Adoration 
of the Magi. 

Over the second altar in the nave on the north side is 
another fresco by the same master — the Madonna and Child 
with Angels. Here, too, is Pietro di Giovanni's panel of S. 
Bernardino trampling on three episcopal mitres, the mitres of 
the sees he had been offered, painted in 1448. 

Charming and lovely as all these works are, as indeed I 
find all the work of that time when we still believed in God 



2o6 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

and put our trust in other things than electric trams and 
such-like trumpery to have been, it is Lucignano itself that 
I love, that every time I toil up to it seems to me more 
perfectly delightful because it is so completely itself. A little 
place scarcely worth a visit, the tourist may think : a little 
place scarcely worth improving off the face of the earth, the 
modern Italian doubtless murmurs as he passes by down 
the valley in a train too wretched for any other land, in a 
service so arranged that it is impossible to arrive almost 
anywhere without a journey of many hours. Benedicamus 
Domino say I. Lucignano remains to us while too much 
that we have loved has gone down into the modern limbo. 
Let them vent their hatred of all that is noble and beautiful, 
of all that draws to their country the universal love of man- 
kind : we know they will pass with all their unspeakable 
works, and their place shall know them no more. Meanwhile 
there remain to us these little places fair and lovely, too 
humble to excite their cupidity or to ensure them the infamous 
publicity they covet and find in the destruction of the once 
famous cities. Let us treasure these, and remind ourselves of 
them amid the model dweUings of Florence where no one 
could be at peace, or amid the ghastly ruin that was Rome. 



XVIII 

TO SINALUNGA, FOIANO, AND 
TORRITA 

FROM Lucignano, from the station of Lucignano to the 
station of Sinalunga is but ten miles, but from thence to 
the town is a good half-hour's walk. Yet let us rejoice that 
this little hill-town is not nearer the railway, for it has thus 
been able to keep something of its ancient character, its old- 
world air, and what beauty the centuries have left it. As for 
the town itself, it is not among the more beautiful places of 
Tuscany, but it is set in so fine a landscape, it is surrounded 
by so lovely a country-side, it is piled up so loftily on its 
strangely contorted hill and overlooks so noble and so 
splendid a world, that, in spite of the fact that for the moment 
it can boast of no inn that any one would wish to sleep in, it 
must never be omitted in any journey through this delicious 
valley. 

The birthplace of Ghino di Tacco, the famous brigand, of 
whom Boccaccio tells us in the Second Tale of the Tenth 
Day of the '* Decameron," and whom we shall meet again at 
Radicofani, Sinalunga is a curious little nondescript and sun- 
baked castello set on a high hill in a delicious world of 
vineyard and olive garden on the western bastion of the Val 
di Chiana. Reached from the railway by a long winding and 
delightful road, to which, according to Repetti, it owes its 
name Sinalungo — Sinus longus^ or as it became later Asina- 
lunga — it is but rarely visited by travellers, and the one inn it 

207 



208 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

possessed, and that a good one, has for the time being closed 
its doors. 

Very few memories have come down to us concerning the 
place earlier than the twelfth century, when it formed a part 
of the dominion of the Conti della Scialenga, who presently 
brought it into the power of Siena, against which city it twice 
rebelled in 13 13 and in 1322. But after the defeat of the 
Compagnia del Capello near Torrita, its neighbour, in 1363, 
Sinalunga finally came into the dominion of the Republic, 
the counts in 1343 having sold to the town all their property 
and rights in it for some 2,250 gold florins. Then in 1399, 
when the Sienese for fear of Florence handed over the govern- 
ment of their city and its contado to Visconti of Milan, who 
certainly hoped to add Tuscany to his dominions, Sinalunga 
as part of that contado came into his power. In the year 
1400 he built a great tower, called La Torre, which was 
destroyed by lightning in 1563, but by then Sinalunga, like 
all its neighbours, had for ten years been in the hands of 
Cosimo I, and not much later it made part of the Grandu- 
cato. 

The ruins of La Torre, however, remained till 1590, when 
Grand-Duke Ferdinando I pulled them down and used them 
to build the new pieve of S. Martino, giving the ground thus 
laid bare for a public piazza, the great Piazza we find to-day 
in the loftiest part of the town before the pieve or Collegiata. 
The old pieve^ like all those of Tuscany, lies without the town 
at the foot of the hill on which it stands, and may still be 
seen with its borgo a little to the south of the railway station 
beside the winding road by which we reach Sinalunga. It 
was dedicated to S. Pietro, and in 1591 by a Bull of Clement 
VIII all its rights passed to the new Collegiata. 

These dull facts will perhaps appeal but little to the 
traveller who, on his way through this part of Tuscany, has 
had the courage to visit Sinalunga for the sake of the pictures 
Mr. Berenson or some article by that devoted student and 
hunter of Sienese pictures, Mr. Perkins, has told him he will 
surely find there. But let him have patience. Pictures there 



SmALUNGA, FOIANO, AND TORRITA 209 

are and to spare in this neglected town, but even to-day in the 
vulgar rush hither and thither of poor people who have no 
time to do anything gently, it would be unpardonable to take 
even Sinalunga by assault without some sort of introduction. 
Indeed, if it is thus we are to be compelled to visit the cities 
of our second fatherland they will lose half their interest for 
us j and as for their pictures, they might as well share the fate 
of their brethren and be imprisoned in those vast emporiums 
called Museums, where much the same crowd hustles and 
gapes as you may find at the entertainment of Barnum 
and Bailey. No picture howsoever lovely, howsoever holy 
and divine, can survive a single month in such an asylum 
as the Uffizi or the Academy of Siena. In some way, I know 
not rightly why, they fade and die there as in an intolerable 
captivity. Perhaps, like ourselves, these living and lovely 
beings which we are so powerless to create strike roots as we 
do into their native earth, or into that place to which love has 
brought them which they have learned to regard as home. 
Perhaps in the cold corridors of a Museum they miss the 
prayers of the poor, the tears of the sorrowful, the thanks 
of those they have often assisted, the laughter of little children. 
Certainly there is here some mystery we cannot wholly under- 
stand. Only we know that, however carefully we bear it away 
from its altar, that triptych, that panel, that picture of the 
Madonna will in its new place presently suffer some change, 
will seem to fade and die ; and in delivering up to us, to the 
curious, cold eyes of the cpnnoisseur, or the crowd what they 
think to be its secret it will suddenly move us no more, will 
tell us no longer of heavenly things, or interpret for us the 
dumb poetry of our hearts, but like a dead body in a dissecting- 
room will tell us only those secrets which the corpse retains 
when the soul has vanished whither we cannot follow. 

And since this is so, it is delightful to find no picture 
gallery or museum in Sinalunga, it is infinitely reassuring to 
know that pictures which have been here these hundreds of 
years remain to her to be worshipped, to be loved, to receive 
the prayers of the poor, and to figure for them what the wicked- 



210 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

ness of the rich and the stupidity of the learned have left 
of divinity in their hearts. 

Now certainly what we should do first in Sinalunga after 
climbing into that lofty piazza before the Church of S. 
Martino from the station is to wander through the narrow 
ways of the town, to visit the fine Palazzo Pubblico, to linger 
on the olive-clad bastions, and to wonder at the beauty that 
is surely to be found there. And when you have thus lifted up 
your heart you may find again all your desire in the churches, 
in that Church of S. Martino which was built out of the ruins 
of La Torre, as I have said, in S. Lucia and S. Croce in the 
Madonna delle Nevi, and S. Bernardino. 

And let us take these things in order. In S. Martino, 
besides the curious little shrine to the right of the western 
doors there is over the altar of the south transept a fine 
altarpiece of the Deposition, probably from the hand of 
Girolamo del Pacchia. Pacchia was the pupil of Fungai, and 
passed under the influence of many masters, Florentine as 
well as Sienese. His work has the usual composite quality of 
the sixteenth century, but here for once I think — or is it just 
my fancy? — he has brought something almost divine into a 
picture that but for that would be a little mannered, a little 
lacking in sincerity. In a wide and beautiful valley where 
afar off we seem to recognise the beautiful lines of Monte 
Cetona and Mont' Amiata, the cross itself hiding the height of 
Radicofani, Jesus our Saviour has been lifted from the Tree 
and now lies in His Mother's lap supported by the Holy 
Women, while S. John carefully lifts away the crown of thorns 
from His brow, and S. Joseph of Arimathea and Simon of 
Cyrene wait in the background, the one with the precious 
ointment for His burial, the other with the holy relics — the 
instruments of the Passion — which he holds in his hands. 
And lo ! though yesterday it was almost summer, it is bleak 
winter now; the little trees stand forlorn, stripped of their 
leaves, and all the world is bare and still with the stillness 
of death awaiting the Resurrection. Beneath the picture are 
seven predella panels, a Crucifixion at each end, and between 



SINALUNGA, FOIANO, AND TORRITA 211 

them the Flagellation, the Bearing of the Cross, the Cruci- 
fixion, the Entombment, and the Resurrection. 

From S. Martino we pass through the narrow streets to 
S. Lucia, a curious and beautiful sanctuary, where over an 
altar on the right is a splendid work by Benvenuto di 
Giovanni — an altarpiece of the Madonna enthroned with her 
Divine Son on her lap between S. Sebastian and S. Fabiano. 
Above in heaven hovers the Dove, while two angels fly there 
on guard about her head, two play on strangely lovely instru- 
ments at her feet. In the predella are three scenes divided by 
four panels of Saints — the Martyrdom of S. Sebastian, the 
Resurrection, and the Martyrdom of S. Fabian. In a recess 
in the eastern wall of the south transept is a fresco of the 
Madonna and Child between S. Roch and another Saint, with 
S. Bernardino and S. John Baptist at the sides. This, too, 
according to Mr. Berenson, is by Benvenuto. 

From S. Lucia we pass to S. Croce, where on the right wall 
is a late picture by Luca Signorelli of the Sposalizio, an interest- 
ing and charming work of the great Umbro-Tuscan master. 

We come upon Benvenuto's work again not only in the 
Madonna delle Nevi, where over the high altar there is an 
archaic Madonna from his hand, but also in the delicious 
little Franciscan sanctuary of S. Bernardino, some way up the 
valley to the west of Sinalunga. 

You leave the great piazza by a road on the right, and 
following it uphill come at last, at the end of a little avenue 
of cypresses, at a turning of the way to the little church and 
convent, with its cool loggia and sweet country aspect. 

Here in the dear summer quiet you may find — it maybe 
at evening, when Vespers are over and the antiphons of the 
Magnificat have reminded you that the morrow is the Feast 
of the Assumption, and the Salve Regina^ that marvellously 
lovely anthem of which one can never grow weary, has died 
away in the cloisters — three pictures of exceptional beauty. 
The loveliest is in the choir, the Annunciation by Benvenuto 
di Giovanni. Under a loggia of marble beside the wonderful- 
temple of Jerusalem, a poet's dream of a sanctuary. Madonna 



212 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

rests at evening, drooping like a flower over her Little Office, 
her vase of lilies beside her, when suddenly like a star from 
heaven Gabriel falls before her on his knees, crowned with a 
garland from Paradise, a sceptre of olive in his hand, and 
whispers his Ave. And it is in truth from the very heaven of 
heavens he has come, as indeed Benvenuto has not forgotten 
to tell us, from the presence of the Father, Whom we may see 
bending down towards His angel, giving him that branch of 
olive and the Message, too, which announced our joy and 
that peace, also, which is surely ours if anywhere in the world, 
then here with these little friars this summer evening under 
the cypresses among the corn and the flowers. 

There are other works, too, in the church, but they cannot 
keep us long from Benvenuto. Here in the choir is a picture 
of the Salvator Mundi by Sano di Pietro. Over an altar hard 
by is a fine picture of the Madonna and Child enthroned 
between two Saints, while in heaven God the Father rejoices 
with His angels and the Dove hovers over the head of our 
Mother about to be crowned with no mortal diadem. 

It is always with a sad heart I leave S. Bernardino of 
Sinalunga, for who knows if I shall ever see it again ? But 
at nightfall one must hasten away, for it is necessary to be 
in Foiano or Torrita before dark, since at Sinalunga there is 
now no inn. 

Of the way to Foiano I cannot speak as I would. I can 
only say that it is so fair that if you may you should go afoot. 
You descend by the winding road through the olive gardens 
to the Borgata di S. Pietro by the station, and crossing the 
line take the road east across the valley, and climbing the 
hills by La CasteUina descend again into the valley of 
the Esse, a mere long estuary of the Val di Chiana, and so 
climbing again come at last to Foiano towering over the 
main Chiana valley looking straight to Cortona. 

Foiano stands indeed on the highest of those hills which 
form the eastern bastions of that lofty promontory thrust out 
by the Chiana range into the valley of the Chiana. It is a 
double town, the older and loftier part forming the casiello^ the 



SINALUNGA, FOIANO, AND TORRITA 213 

lower the borgo. Surrounded once by two lines of walls, both 
of which had three gates, the older included only the castello 
with its lofty tower and two fine palaces. 

In such a place, when the majesty and beauty of the land- 
scape has had its way with you, history, you might think, was 
bound to have been glorious. But in fact we are ignorant 
of the origin of Foiano, though some have conjectured that 
it got its name from the Romans, who called it Fanum or 
Forum Jani. However that may be, the castello and \\iq pieve 
are spoken of in the earliest part of the eleventh century as 
dependent on the Bishop of Arezzo, though the Conti della 
Scialenga and Berardenga certainly had some jurisdiction 
here, as in so many other places about Asciano. To our 
surprise, in the thirteenth century we hear almost nothing 
of Foiano, but in the fourteenth we find it one of the most 
important castelli in the immediate power of Arezzo, until in 
1337 it came into the hands of Florence, only to pass, if but 
for a moment, into the dominion of Perugia. By 1353 it 
was once more in the hands of Arezzo, but thirty years later 
it voluntarily submitted to Florence on the eve of the final 
overthrow of its ancient mistress. After that, till the whole 
of this part of Tuscany fell into the hands of Cosimo I in 1553, 
its chief business was carefully to watch Lucignano, the two 
strongholds, as it were, standing sentinel there for the rival 
cities of Florence and Siena. 

Fine though Foiano is and girdled with olives and golden 
with corn and joyful with fruitful vineyard, it is rather by reason 
of its wonderful views, for the ever delectable landscape that 
lies at its feet, that one would come to it, but that in the Col- 
legiata is hidden away a signed and dated picture by Luca 
Signorelli of the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin. This 
grand and noble picture was painted in 1523, the year of 
Signorelli's death, and was, in fact, the last he set his hand 
to. The Madonna, in a splendid robe of rose with a mantle 
of blue, fairer than the angels who attend her, kneels before 
our Lord Christ, who crowns her Regina virginum. On 
either side two angels play for joy, while S. Joseph, her 



214 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

guardian, still stands beside her, and S. Gabriel, who was 
her messenger, waits lest she should speak again and he not 
hear. Before her in the foreground kneels S. Martino, whose 
altarpiece this is, dressed in a golden cope, and that he won 
in exchange for the poor coat he gave the beggar for Christ's 
sake. On his left hand stands S. Jerome and three monks, 
and behind him S. Mary Magdalen ; and again on the other 
side some fine old saint introduces the donor, Angelo Mas- 
sarelli. 

Signorelli was an old man when he conceived this majestic 
work, which has the unction of a canticle almost, and we may 
be sure that he received some assistance, for not only were the 
figures of S. Gabriel and S. Mary Magdalen too feeble to 
have come from his wise hand, even though it trembled then, 
but in thQ predella only two of the four scenes are his. The 
four scenes represent the Life of S. Martin, and in the two 
Signorelli has given us with all his boldness and mastery of 
composition we see S. Martin in armour on his great white 
war-horse with his men-at-arms about him dividing his cloak 
with the beggar. In the other we see the Saint kneeling 
before a Bishop with his two acolytes — a beautiful picture. 

Having seen this splendour after Mass, I do not see why 
the traveller should not make his way southward and west 
back across the valley to Torrita, which may be reached directly 
from Foiano by road through BettoUe. It is a walk or drive of 
some ten or, maybe, twelve miles. The way by Sinalunga, 
and so by train, is shorter, and the road is better, but so you 
miss Bettolle and a new vista of the great valley. 

BettoUe, which may be counted half-way, is a garden — a 
garden of chestnuts and vineyards and olives. I do not know 
that Bettolle is famous among Italians, if indeed it be famous 
at all for anything but its fairs ; but for me it is one of the 
fairest of all villages, with a fine wine and a courteous people, 
and I wish it every sort of good there is to be had in this 
damnable age we live in, and that is the same thing as to 
repeat the old commandment to keep itself unspotted from 
the world. Some day probably, when Italy has grown out 



SINALUNGA, FOIANO, AND TORRITA 215 

of her blessed poverty — and if she could but see it that is 
her best possession — Bettolle will be lost in a forest of tall 
chimneys, all the valleys will be hidden in a great pall of 
smoke, and a vast chemical works or what not will enslave 
the inhabitants from far and near. May this be far from thee, 
Bettolle ! but I fear it. Italy knows nothing of the misery 
of manufacture — that is not manufacture, but the domination 
of the machine. She is longing to learn, for in that slavery of 
her people lies gold. But I tell you, Bettolle and Italy, that 
the most wretched of your poor upon the mountains are happy 
in health and wealth beyond the wildest dreams of our poor 
ones in the unspeakable byways of our great manufacturing 
towns. As I wish you well I wish you poor ; but alas ! you 
art not so poor as in my father's time. Are you happier or 
better? I wonder — I wonder. 

And so, wondering still on that fair summer's morning, 
I crossed the great valley, mile after mile of it, and climbed 
into Torrita. Now^Torrita is splendid, set onlthe summit of 
its tufa hill, and is probably of Etruscan origin — older then 
than Sinalunga, older than Foiano. Its history, so far as we 
may know its history, is that of every other little town between 
Siena and Montepulciano, and the best example of that is the 
story of Lucignano. It only comes really on to the stage even 
of Sienese history twice : it took part in the war with Perugia, 
and it witnessed the only honourable effort Siena was ever 
able to make to rid herself and her contado of the curse of the 
military companies. It happened thus. In the year 1363 
Siena was ruled by that worst faction of all, the Dodici, 
who, not content with their own ineptitude, strove so 
far to obliterate even the memory of the Nove that they 
caused the very name to be erased from the public statutes. 
The times were perilous, and this gang of tradesmen was 
completely unfitted to deal with them. Many dependent 
towns had already revolted, and the Companies of Adven- 
ture which harassed the contado had again been bought off 
with great sums of money, when Messer Ceccolo degli Orsini, 
a Roman and no Sienese, in command of the Sienese levies, 



2i6 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

decided to save his honour in spite of the magistrates. 
Finding the Company of the Hat, a professional army of 
ruffians and pirates ready to do any man's bidding who 
would pay them, lurking in the contado hereabout, against 
the order of the magistrates of Siena, he forced them to fight 
him in the valley between Sinalunga and Torrita and beat 
them, as you may see any day in the great Sala of the Palazzo 
Pubblico of Siena, for Tomme has painted the battle there, not 
without glory. " He was not confirmed in his office because 
he had been ordered not to join battle by reason of the peril 
which might come of it ; and for this he was not re-elected." 
The Dodici^ adding infamy to cowardice, however, were not 
ashamed to get what glory they could out of his victory, and 
that fresco of Tomme's is as much a monument to their 
dishonour as to his victory. 

Torrita to-day shares with Sinalunga not only a glory of 
landscape, but a wealth of pictures little, if any, inferior 
to hers. 

In the Propositura, over the second altar on the south, is a 
picture of the Nativity with Saints by Bartolo di Fredi, while 
on the next altar is a magnificent signed altarpiece of the 
Madonna and Child with Saints by Benvenuto di Giovanni, 
painted in 1497. That is perhaps the finest work in Torrita, 
but in the Madonna delle Nevi we come upon some mag- 
nificent frescoes about an altar by Girolamo di Benvenuto 
that in their exquisite country beauty are not less delightful. 
In the midst we see Madonna at Assumption among a crowd 
of musical angels, while S. Thomas, doubtful again, receives 
at once for his assurance and in token of her forgiveness her 
girdle, which now lies, they say, in Prato, where, in fact, I 
have seen it. Under the arch with His Saints our Lord from 
amid the Cherubim awaits His Mother and ours. On either 
side we see two saints, and above the Annunciation, in a quiet 
court looking on a garden plot. 

Nor is this all, for hard by Cozzarelli has painted it all over 
again, though with less sweetness and sincerity. 

Before I left Torrita I wandered by chance into S. Flora, and 



SINALUNGA, FOIANO, AND TORRITA 217 

there I found what for me, after all, was the best of all, an old 
and beautiful triptych by some early Florentine master, where 
on a gold ground was set forth the Crucifixion of our Lord, 
with the Blessed Virgin and S. John, and weeping at the foot 
of the Cross golden-haired Magdalen. In the side panels 
stood two Saints as though at Mass, as indeed they were. 
It was with this in my heart that just before sunset I set 
out for the railway to reach Montepulciano that night, though 
indeed I scarce knew how.^ 

* See note lO, p. 331 infra. 



XIX 

MONTEPULCIANO 

THE way from the station over some seven miles of hill and 
dale to the lofty city of Montepulciano is one of the most 
splendid, the most beautiful in all Tuscany. The whole valley 
of the Chiana and beyond and beyond is spread out like some 
gracious fairyland, in which lie three magic lakes, and one of 
them is the loveliest in the world — the lakes of Chiusi, of 
Montepulciano, and of Trasimeno ; beyond lie the great ever- 
lasting mountains of Umbria, and over all is a supreme and 
luminous peace. Little by little as you climb to the wonder- 
ful city of the beautiful name some great or delicate feature 
in the landscape impresses itself upon you, only to be re- 
placed again and again by other details as fair as itself ; the 
serene and graceful outline of Cetona, for instance, gives place 
to the tremendous and beautiful mass of Mont' Amiata far 
away, or the eagle's nest of Monte Follonica, truly a city out 
of a fairy tale, draws your eyes from Chiusi, till at last all your 
heart is set on Montepulciano itself, which suddenly appears 
over the lower hills at a turning of the way, the rosy queen 
of all this fair country, a city of another world, a city of the 
pure and aloof mountains. 

It would be hard, and I think unprofitable, to go into the 
almost inextricable details of the history of this far hill city, 
which guarded of old so many ways and stood on so many 
confines. Called, as it is said, first Mons Politicus, then 
Mons Politianus, and finally Montepulciano, if we may believe 
tradition it is among the most noble of Italian towns, founded 
by Lars Porsena of Clusium, and already of account when 

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MONTEPULCIANO 219 

there were kings in Rome. History, however, knows nothing 
of Montepulciano till the year 715 of our era, and though 
traces of Etruscan civilization have been found on its hill-side, 
we know nothing of its life, if Hfe there was, previous to the 
eighth century. Then it began to order itself as a free Com- 
mune, and its fate, like its story, is that of every other town in 
this region; in its comparative weakness it had to decide, not 
whether it would be free or enslaved, but which of two cities 
it would serve, Siena or Florence. Till 1202 it remained 
under the protection of Siena, but in that year it capitulated 
to Florence. This was but the first, if, indeed, it was the 
first, of innumerable surrenders, first to one party and then to 
another. For Montepulciano, commanding the Val di Chiana 
at its narrowest part, before it divided into the two arms which 
lead to Arezzo and Siena, dominating the only pass between 
the Val di Chiana and the Val d' Asso, where the Via Franci- 
gena entered the great defile between Mont' Amiata and 
Monte Cetona, standing, as it did, on the verge of Umbria 
and Tuscany, was continually the cause of war between 
Florence and Siena, both of which claimed so valuable a 
fortress. Indeed, as you read the story of those mediaeval 
Communes you might think that their sole cause of quarrel 
was this little hill city, so unfortunately placed for herself in 
command of the great trade routes of Italy. Her fate was 
decided by her geographical position ; for though she was so 
finely situated as a fortress, she was, even more than Siena, 
debarred by that position from ever becoming a rich and 
populous city of merchandise; and if these conditions be 
well grasped any detailed account of her story will be super- 
fluous. For we might prophesy from them the very fate 
which overtook her. They destined her to be a bone of 
contention for ever, and even as two dogs quarrel over a bone, 
so Florence and Siena quarrelled over Montepulciano. Some- 
times the one seemed to be going to possess her, sometimes 
the other, but till almost the end, in 1553, Montepulciano 
remained a continual cause of quarrel. 

The reader will have some idea of the unfortunate story of 



220 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Montepulciano, thus at the mercy of her vastly stronger 
neighbours, when he has reaUzed what the following facts 
really mean. Till 1202 Montepulciano lived in friendship 
with Siena. In that year Florence forced her to acknow- 
ledge her suzerainty. Then, in 1207, Siena forced her to 
acknowledge Sienese rights over the castello^ but Florence 
opposed the claim, and encouraged Montepulciano to ally 
herself with Orvieto. The struggle that followed was a long 
one, and only finished in 1232 with the triumph of the Sienese 
and the destruction of the wall of the hill city. Two years 
later, however, she was compelled to rebuild the walls and 
once more to cede herself. There followed Montaperto 
(1260), after which the Ghibellines of Siena built the great 
fortress in Montepulciano whose ruins we still see, but the 
death of Manfred soon put an end to the Sienese power. 

To the agony forced upon Montepulciano from outside 
was added in the fourteenth century internal troubles. The 
family of Pecora, a family of ambitious merchants, seized the 
place, and when they were betrayed by one of their own blood 
and the city freed from their tyranny in 1352, it was only to 
fall into the hands of Florence or of Siena or even of Perugia. 
Perugia, however, had serious need of the city, and did some- 
thing, at any rate, to restore her her freedom, till in 1359 Niccolb 
del Pecora returned, and there followed riot, murder, and 
finally treason. Montepulciano herself asked for the protection 
of Siena. By 1388, however, we are not surprised to find she 
was tired of Siena, and appealed to Florence, whereupon 
Siena, as we know, placed herself and her contado under the 
lordship of Visconti of Milan. Visconti took Montepulciano, 
but by 1404 Siena, weary of his tyranny, got rid of him, and, 
making alliance with Florence, exchanged Lucignano, which 
then belonged to the Lily, for Montepulciano. There followed 
the futile wars of the condottieri^ which fill the fifteenth cen- 
tury with confusion. And, in fact, it was not till Niccolb 
Machiavelli appeared, and, making treaty with Siena, secured 
the lordship of that city to Petrucci and the lordship of 
Montepulciano to Florence, that order rose out of chaos. 



MONTEPULCIANO 221 

But by then Cosimo I was at hand, and the Granducato 
something more than a prophecy. Thus peace came at last 
when the hegemony of Tuscany passed into the hands of 
Florence under the great Medici. 

There are but few signs left to-day of those centuries of 
struggle, of blood, treason, slavery, and destruction. Monte- 
pulciano is one of the most smiling, one of the most delightful 
of the smaller cities of Tuscany, and she sits there on her hill- 
top to-day above her lawns and vineyards and woods like a 
queen sure of her court and her own beauty. And, indeed, 
the traveller can hope to find few places more satisfying. Till 
last year, at any rate, he might live there as comfortably as he 
could wish in what was still a mediaeval city. The horrid 
desire for what the ignorant are pleased to call "progress,'*" 
which with them means destruction, the beauty of Montepul- 
ciano and a part of her dignity and aloofness have been com- 
promised. The old winding way from the railway, so charming 
and delightful, and as convenient as any could wish, is no 
longer good enough for the Socialist element that everywhere 
in Italy is able to bring so accursed a pressure upon the 
powers that be. A new and perfectly straight road is under 
construction, a part of the old wall of the city has been 
destroyed, and it looks as though Montepulciano, like 
Perugia, were to be cursed by the advent of a Belgian electric 
tramway from the station. What charming ideas the modern 
Italian has ! — the modern Italian, I mean, who has so unfortu- 
nately obtained control of his unfortunate country. Having 
turned nearly all the cities of Italy into a kind of pande- 
monium, where no way is safe or quiet, he is now busy 
infesting the country byways with the same infernal machines. 
No one questions the right of the Italians to do what they 
will with their own land, but seeing that Italy as a whole is 
largely dependent for prosperity on the foreign visitor and 
tourist — a fact every Italian finds it convenient to forget — one 
may question the wisdom of uglifying or destroying every- 
thing the foreign visitor and tourist come to see. 

As yet, however, Montepulciano is by no means spoiled. 



222 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

It is true that the Marzocco Inn is not so charming as I feel 
sure it must have been when Symonds made it famous. A 
certain greediness which the unfortunate tourist excites, alas ! 
spoils good manners, even the natural good manners of the 
Tuscans. Still the comfort of the inn, even the cleanliness of 
your waiter, are — so it be well with the beds — in my opinion 
secondary matters. It is always possible to eat in the fields, 
and no one travels to sit in an inn parlour, but if all we have 
come to see has been " improved " away by the great vulgar 
legions of " progress," it is a serious matter. Happily in 
Montepulciano there is still enough and to spare. 

For if the wine be over-rated, and I sincerely think it is — 
I know fifty better wines to-day in Northern and Southern 
Tuscany — it is impossible to praise too highly the beauty of 
the city and of the country in which she reigns, or to tell 
easily of the beauty of the works of art which still abide there 
— too many, alas ! in a museum. 

On entering Montepulciano one is struck at once by the 
splendour of her walls and gates, by the Porta del Prato 
especially, and once within the city, even as one comes to the 
inn, the palaces of Antonio da Sangallo astonish one by their 
beauty and splendour. From the Marzocco — that sign of 
Florentine domination opposite the Palazzo Avignonesi, just 
outside the inn, all one's way through the city is set with fine 
buildings — the Loggia del Mercato of Vignola, the Palazzo 
Tarugi, the Palazzo del Pecora, the Palazzo Contucci, perhaps 
the finest of Sangallo's buildings within the city, the magnifi- 
cent Palazzo Pubblico, truly as fine as that of Florence, but 
with a tower that follows a long way oif the Mangia of Siena, 
the whole of the Piazza Grande with its beautiful fountain, 
the Palazzo Cervini of Sangallo, the Palazzo Bombagli, so 
charmingly Sienese, the Palazzo Ricci-Paracciani — all the way 
is set with fine buildings up to the modern fortezza^ which 
stands on the ruins of the old Rocca of the Sienese. 

All this without speaking of the churches. But they are as 
lovely as one can wish, from S. Agostino to S. Maria, and the 
Cathedral, which is, as it should be, the best of all. 



MONTEPULCIANO 223 

Climbing the narrow, winding street from the Marzocco, 
you pass almost at once on your right the Church of S. 
Agostino, with its fine Renaissance fagade, a delightful work 
of Michelozzo, and there, over the principal doorway, is the 
first of those art treasures in which Montepulciano is so rich, 
Michelozzo's three fine clay figures in half-length of the 
Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist and S. Augus- 
tine. You will find many older things in Montepulciano, but 
nothing, I think, that will charm and delight you more than 
these fifteenth-century sculptures by a master not certainly 
the equal of Donatello, but a master, nevertheless, we may 
well envy the fifteenth century. 

Passing on, ever upwards, through the town, we come at 
last to the Church of S. Maria, standing in an open space on 
the hill-side, and commanding a wide and lovely view of that 
wonderful world of valley and mountain in which Montepul- 
ciano stands. The beautiful tower and charming doorway 
and fagade of S. Maria take you at once, and prepare you 
perhaps for the wonder that awaits you within. There, over 
the first altar on the left, is a splendid panel of the Madonna 
and Child by Segna, that early master, altogether an exquisite 
work, in which colour and form are at one in glory, the blue 
of the mantle rivalling the sky in depth and sweetness. 

Over the second altar, on the right, is a remnant of a 
Trecento fresco of the Madonna and Child, evidently a very 
holy thing, for it has been repeated in a modern picture over 
the first there beside it. In the apse is a copy of the famous 
Madonna of Correggio at Palma. And here, too, is a fine 
altarpiece by Andrea della Robbia, with a fine miracle picture 
in the midst. 

Just beyond S. Maria we come out on the hill-side over the 
olives, and thence we may see the way we shall go to Pienza, 
Montalcino, and Mont' Amiata, with Rocca d' Orcia and 
Campiglia d' Orcia on its skirts, and there lies Trequanda and 
nearer Monte FoUonica, with, on a fair day, in the farthest 
distance to the north and west, the dim blue mountains of 
Elba over the midland sea. 



224 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Turning away at last from such a vision of the kingdoms of 
the world and their beauty, we make our way up past the 
fortezza to the Duomo, which, lovely in itself as it is, is the 
real treasure-house of Montepulciano. 

A gaunt brick building, only partly cased with stone, 
flanked by a great square tower, it is the colour, perhaps, 
rather than the simple form of the Cathedral that wins you at 
first, but within you have a noble church of a fine Renaissance 
type, spacious and full of light, though it may not claim your 
love as the churches of your home. Nevertheless this some- 
what worldly sanctuary possesses two treasures of great price, 
the one whole as ever it was, the other broken, yet even in 
ruin one of the finest things in the city — I mean the great 
altarpiece of Taddeo di Bartolo and the broken tomb of 
Aragazzi by Michelozzo. 

Bartolommeo Aragazzi was secretary to Martin V, and 
Michelozzo's tomb, when it was still perfect, must have been 
one of the finest works of that master. Two fragments of 
it are now to be found just within the west doors of the 
Cathedral, but the main portion, the tomb itself, still stands 
over the high altar. There Aragazzi lies in friar's frock, his 
beautiful hands crossed carefully, seemingly sleeping, his wise 
and careworn face truly sympathetic, in the great peace that 
has smoothed away the restlessness that in that troublous 
time must often have tortured it. Beside him, one on either 
side the high altar, are two statues — S. Gabriel and S. Mary 
at Annunciation. The dead man lies sleeping between them, 
hearing in his dream the marvellous salutation. 

Scattered all over the church are fragments of the once 
perfect cenotaph, friezes of cherubs, and reliefs. No city, 
I think, in all Southern Tuscany can boast of so much 
Florentine work as Montepulciano; but she is under no- 
obligation, since she gave to the city of the Lily the greatest 
ornament of Lorenzo's court, Angelo Poliziano, who was born 
here, and called by her name. The greatest treasure of the 
church, however, is no longer this broken work of a Florentine, 
but a true masteroiece of Siena, Taddeo Bartoli's vast altar- 



MONTEPULCIANO 225 

piece that towers over the high altar. It is a triptych, towered 
and pinnacled, with a splendid double predella^ perfect in 
every detail, of the Death and Assumption of the Blessed 
Virgin. In the midst we see the Madonna ravished into 
heaven, surrounded by angels, while below on earth the 
apostles weep for her, since she is gone from them. There 
are here some hundreds of figures, and the character of the 
heads, the wonderfully living and lovely angels, the perfect 
completeness of the whole work, give to it a beauty, a 
nobility, and an importance beyond anything else we have 
from Taddeo's hand. One head among all those which bend 
over the frail body of the Virgin is especially vivid and full 
of life : it is, as the raised gold letters of the halo tell us, 
that of S. Thaddaeus, and there, I think, we see a portrait 
of the painter. 

In the four pillars are twelve figures of saints, and in the two 
side panels again other saints, each with his name or hers 
written in the gold of their haloes. Above, in the midst, we 
see the Coronation of the Virgin, and on either side the 
mystery of the Annunciation. The predelle consist of 
twenty-three scenes, nine of which are concerned with the 
life of Christ, while fourteen are devoted to the saints. 

The Duomo possesses other works of considerable interest ; 
for instance, in the third chapel on the south side of the 
church is a panel of S. Vincent Ferrer by some pupil of 
Bonfigli and a figure of our Lord by some later master. The 
font, too, is a work of much beauty. 

One other church at least, within the city, that of S. Lucia, 
is worth a visit. Here, in the chapel on the right, is a 
Madonna and Child, a later work by Luca Signorelli. 

But most of the pictures which used to adorn the churches 
of Montepulciano haVe unhappily been gathered into the 
Pinacoteca, where, it is true, they are well cared for, but 
where much of their beauty and all their meaning are lost. 

In the first room seven pieces, reliefs in enamelled terra- 
cotta by the Robbia school, have been gathered; among 
them a lunette of the Madonna and Child with S. John 
Q 



226 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Baptist and S. Lucy ; an altarpiece with a tabernacle about 
which stand four Saints and over which hover two Angels,' 
while above, in a lunette, Madonna is at Annunciation, and 
below, in the predella, two angels wait ; another altarpiece of 
the Madonna and Child between two Saints while above two 
Angels crown her as Queen. Here, too, is an exquisite relief 
in marble of the Madonna and Child between four angels 
by some unknown master of the fifteenth century. 

It is, however, in the pictures that the traveller will chiefly 
find delight. These fill Room II. Here is a Coronation of 
the Blessed Virgin, with seven angels above and four 
below (i), by Bartolo di Fredi (?), but the heads of the 
Virgin and Christ are spoiled. The next picture (2) is, 
though a late work, perhaps the most interesting in the city 
by reason of its subject. It is an Immaculate Conception 
by Lappolli of Arezzo, and was painted in 1547. In a garden 
Madonna treads the devil, half Cupid, half serpent, under 
her feet, bruising his head with her heel. God the Father 
blesses her, rod in hand. Beneath and around are S. Rosa 
of Viterbo, S. Francis, and S. Nicholas of Bari. The picture 
bears the following inscription : " loannes Ant. Lappolus 
Aret. Exprimebat Quod Alius ex Voto et Animo Concepisset 
Anno MDXLVII." 

We then come to a Madonna and Child with S. John the 
Baptist (3), a charming work with a lovely landscape, by some 
pupil of FiUppino Lippi. A Holy Family (7) of much beauty 
follows, by Sodoma, and then we find ourselves face to face 
with the masterpiece of the collection, a delicate and lovely 
Nativity (10) by Benvenuto Giovanni or Girolamo di 
Benvenuto, where our Lord lies on the ground just outside 
the shed where the ox feeds with the ass, and Madonna, like 
a tower of rosy ivory, kneels with S. Joseph to worship Him, 
while a shepherd in the background peers down in wonder 
and the Holy Dove hovers over "the place where the young 
child lay." In a cleft of dark rock an owl rests, and in 
heaven God blesses the world in a cloud of Cherubim, and a 
tiny bright angel, like a gorgeous bird, flies earthward with 




LA MADONNA DI S. BIA(;iO, MONTE PULCIANO 



/■ 



MONTEPULCIANO 227 

those glad tidings to the shepherds keeping watch over their 
flocks, which shall be to all people. Nothing more delicately 
fair than this Nativity is to be found in Montepulciano. 

A few other works in the collection have some interest for 
us: a spoiled Crucifixion (12) by some pupil of Filippino 
Lippi ; a reliquary (16), the Madonna and Child above, and 
under S. John Baptist, S. Biagio, and S. Sigismundo by some 
pupil of Fei ; a Madonna and Child with S. Francis and a 
Bishop by some pupil of Bicci di Lorenzo ; a tondo of the 
Madonna and Child in a fair landscape (20) by Carli, and a 
charming picture by Bicci di Lorenzo of the Madonna and 
Child with S. Francis, S. Catherine, S. John the Baptist, and 
an Olivetan monk. 

But it is only as we are leaving Montepulciano for Pienza 
perhaps that we see what is surely the most striking 
monument to her splendour at its greatest in the later 
Renaissance — I mean the beautiful church built for love by 
Antonio da Sangallo beneath the western height of the town. 
Coming upon S. Maria della Consolazione, outside one of 
the most unapproachable cities in all Italy, Todi in Umbria, 
I called it, in an eager burst of enthusiasm, the most beautiful 
church in all the world. Well, here you may see something 
very like it without going to the trouble of marching to Todi. 
S. Biagio of Montepulciano is, on a small scale, of course, 
what S. Pietro in Vaticano should have been, what it would 
have been but for the barbarian Reformation — a Greek cross 
under a dome. As you stand on the threshold it is upward 
that your gaze is drawn, irresistibly, by the great light and 
space of the design, the height and beauty of all the pro- 
portions. Here is a church full of light — a church not for 
repentance but for praise ; the whole place seems to utter the 
great verses of the Te Deum Laudamus^ in itself to give 
visible form to words in which alone we hear some faint 
echo of those the great archangels sing: — 

"Tibi omnes Angeli, Tibi coeli et universae potestates : 
Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim incessabili voce proclamant : 
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth, 
Pleni sunt coeli et terra majestatis gloriae tuae." 



228 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Is it not, as we pass on our way, for the words of this 
ineffable song that the ohves lend their music, that the 
vineyards are hushed and all the flowers bow their heads? 

** Tu Rex gloriae, Christe, 
Tu Patris semipiternus es Filius. 
Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem, non horruisti 

Virginis uterum. 
Tu devicto mortis aculeo, aperuisti credentibus regna 

coelorum. 
Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes in gloria Patris." 



XX 

PIENZA AND S. QUIRICO D' ORCIA 

THE road from Montepulciano to Pienza, a distance 
of some eight miles, is one of the most picturesque, 
one of the most wonderful in Central Italy. View after view, 
vista after vista, north and south, east and west, open before 
you, the glory of the world seems indeed to be spread out 
there for your joy. To the south rise the indescribably im- 
pressive forms of Mont' Amiata, Monte Cetona, and the huge 
bizarre rock Radicofani, to the north lie the low and tawny 
hills of the desert, closed at last by the distant range beneath 
which Siena lies, to the west Pienza stands like a sentinel, and 
after Siena Montalcino, and behind Montalcino the blue 
mysterious mountains of the Maremma, while behind you to 
the east Montepulciano rises like some marvellous sign high 
up into the sky. One may well sing Te Deum. Nowhere 
else in Tuscany does the strength and nobility of the Italian 
landscape so impress itself upon you, nowhere else do the moun- 
tains seem so everlasting and so proud or the valleys so rare, 
the world so wonderful a prize. Nor is the character of this 
landscape less splendid than its composition. It has before 
everything a beauty and strength of outline, of construction, 
that I have found equalled only in Spain : it has colour, too, 
and spaciousness, but chiefly it has outline and beauty, 
decisive and affirmative, in which I find much of the beauty of 
plain-chant. It has not the quietness, the repose, the softness 
and sweetness that we find everywhere in Southern England , 
just these qualities it is content to lack, but it has always what 

329 



230 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

is rarest in England, a beauty of outline without which there 
is no real or profound satisfaction, I think, no finality ; just as 
in music nothing contents us at last as the plain-song does, in 
whose extraordinary simplicity and assurance everything that the 
heart of man can conceive seems to be hidden and expressed. 
So I thought as one summer afternoon I rested in the shadow 
of a cypress on that glorious road, so far from the noisy cities, 
so far from that island in the northern sea which I have loved 
because it is my home. And suddenly, as I thought of all 
this, looking the while at the mountains and the fairy city 
of Monte Follonica over the barren valley, I became aware 
that I was sitting beside a short granite pillar, like a mile- 
stone, on which was carved an English name — Newton. Was 
this some belated monument, worn to a stump by the weather, 
battered, maybe, by angry and incredulous dericali^ to the 
great philosopher, one of the supreme expressions of my 
country, or merely a sign set up by some restless adventurer 
of my race who, like my forefathers, had set out where the 
road led oversea, and liking by chance some vague country- 
side, had acquired land there and set to farming ? 

A little later I came to a great castle at a turning of the way 
over the bare hills, and then at last and suddenly Pienza came 
into full view, still some miles away, so I set out with re- 
newed heart and won the gate at sunset. 

And as it happened my angel went with me, for as I came 
up the one long street of the place into the piazza where the 
Duomo stands and the Palazzo del Municipio and the Palazzo 
Piccolomini, and indeed all the great buildings of Pienza, he 
led me, and I swear I knew nothing about it, out behind 
the great church on to a narrow terrace, and there I watched 
the sunset. I could not have had greater good fortune. For 
it was not only the sunset I saw, but the sunset over a great 
bare world of mountain and valley — Mont' Amiata, now 
quite close, and Val d' Orcia — a world actually as beautiful and 
as strong as Castile, as barren, too, and as stony, as tremendous 
in its marvellous significance. Desolate beyond expression, 
that wide and desert valley, full of twilight, lay before me, 



PIENZA AND S. QUIRICO D' ORCIA 231 

and out of it ros^ the vast bastions of Mont' Amiata, the 
greatest mountain in Tuscany, and its foundations were as 
the foundations of a nation. Huge and sloping cliffs of 
tawny rock supported the enormous weight of the mountain, 
rising higher and higher till they formed at last the tremen- 
dous platform from which rose the cone of this great extinct 
volcano we call Mont' Amiata. Not a tree was to be seen, 
not a house, not a sign of human habitation or toil, only this 
primeval world of boulder and cliff and desert, out of which 
the great mountain rose — the monument of some bygone 
and departed age of stone. When the sun had set and the 
last faint ghost of light had vanished from the earth still 
under a heaven of stars, the mountain loomed out before 
me, blotting out the whole western sky. And as I returned 
down the street of Pienza to the inn it was that beautiful 
grave shape which I saw still before me, that I could not 
put out of my mind or forget, that later haunted my dreams, 
for I seemed to have seen some supernatural beauty, vast 
and beyond the measure of man, that in its tremendous force 
and silence expressed something I was not able to understand. 
Something it held in common with the constellations, those 
blazons of the sky which surely portend some message or 
express the meaning of some godlike order, some universal 
ceremony in which the Sun is served at a heavenly altar by 
all the planets in order, and the stars in their courses chaunt 
the winding antiphons in some universal Liturgy. 

The story of Pienza is like the fairy tale of Cinderella, 
which after all has Christian authority, for is it not written that 
the last shall be first? Before Pienza changed her name, 
before her wonderful, her incredible good fortune befell her, 
she was but a little good-for-nothing village of a few hundred 
inhabitants, and her name was Corsignano. Then in the 
first years of the fifteenth century a certain poor nobleman, 
exiled from Siena, came to this village to live by cultivating 
the few wretched acres which alone remained to him, for he 
was ruined. With him came his young wife, as noble as 



232 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

himself, and presently in their little homestead she gave 
birth to a son, whom they called Enea Silvio. This child of 
the race of the Piccolomini, after a life of adventure, managing 
his affairs with great astuteness, and meeting with much good 
fortune, was presently elected Pope, and taking, in memory 
of Aeneas, after whom he was named, the title of Pius, out 
of his vanity, in the twinkling of an eye, as only a Pope 
can, he turned the disreputable and dirty little village of 
Corsignano into the city of Pienza, building there a cathedral 
and certain palaces, and setting over it to govern it a Bishop, 
that his name might be remembered for ever and his birth- 
place be held in honour in saecula saeculorum. Now the 
infallibility of a Pope no one of good education will be 
found to question ; but this infallibility, as is well known, is 
only to be found in matters pertaining to the Faith, and in 
them only when he speaks ex cathedra as St. Peter's successor 
or as the vicegerent of God here on earth — PP. Pont. Max. 
Serv. Servorffi. Dei. Therefore it is not surprising that, do 
what he would, though Decree followed Decree and Bull 
followed Bull, Pienza remained Corsignano — that is to say, 
a little village — and nothing that the Pope and the Bishop 
could do with their cathedral and their palaces ever was 
able to make it otherwise. So God ordained; and as it 
was in the beginning, so it is now and ever shall be, world 
without end. Amen. If you do not believe me, go and see 
for yourself. You will find it as I have said. And maybe 
you will allow that I am right, without further demonstration, 
when I say that it is only lately Pienza has come into the 
possession of an inn. According to Augustus Hare there was 
no inn in Pienza in his day. 

Having settled this matter, let me hasten to add that as 
a village Pienza is one of the most charming and delightful 
places in the world, exceptional, too, as villages go, in the 
possession of a fine cathedral and several palaces, to say 
nothing of pictures and a museum ; and yet with all these, 
which Pius gave her, the finest thing and incomparably the 
loveliest and the best which she possesses was the gift of 



PIENZA AND S. QUIRICO D' ORCIA 233 

God — I mean the great view she has of the mountains and 
the Val d' Orcia from her hill-side. For this she should 
give thanks daily, and we with her ; for the rest, we can 
accept it with a certain complacence, seeing that it is there, 
not for our sakes at all, but to satisfy the vanity of Enea 
Silvio, the most human of the Popes who, in the name of 
Pius II, filled St. Peter's Chair not unworthily from 1458 
to 1464. 

The most considerable buildings in Pienza, the buildings 
which it owes to Pius II, are set about the Piazza del Duomo, 
in which the Palazzo Pubblico faces the Cathedral, and the 
Arcivescovado the Piccolomini Palace : these are the sights 
of Pienza, but I always prefer first to visit the old J>ieve, the 
little parish church of Corsignano, which was here or ever Pius 
came and thrust upon the village an honour too intolerable — 
the honour of his name. 

To reach this humble little sanctuary it is necessary to 
descend behind the apse of the Duomo for a few hundred 
yards southward, when it will be seen beside the way, a 
somewhat neglected flower of poverty and littleness. The 
church is dedicated to S. Vito and S. Modesta, and is very 
ancient, the Bishops of Arezzo and Siena having disputed its 
jurisdiction even in the eighth century. The present build- 
ing, however, dates from the eleventh or twelfth century, 
and consists of three naves, divided by unequal round arches 
of stone. Beneath is a crypt. Two splendid romanesque 
doorways, ornamented with sculpture, lead into the church; 
that in the fagade has a curious and half-ruined round 
tower. Here both Pius II and his father were christened. 

Another relic of the village of Corsignano is the Fran- 
ciscan Convent church of S. Francesco, that once had a 
little hospice of friars attached to it which in the eigh- 
teenth century was transformed into an episcopal seminary. 
Once covered with frescoes, now lost to us, the church 
was restored in 189 2- 1903. It still holds a few Sienese 
pictures — almost all that is left to it of its sweet country 
beauty. The two churches of Corsignano are, however, 



234 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

but shrines for the sentimental traveller; for the rest of us 
there remain the Cathedral, the Piccolomini Palace, and 
the Museo, which after all are what has brought us to so 
out-of-the-way a place as Pienza. 

Evil days have befallen the beautiful masterpiece of 
Bernardo Rossellino, which he began in 1457 and, with 
the Piccolomini Palace, finished in less than three years. 
In the series of earthquakes that have lately proved so 
disastrous for Italy, the whole of the foundations of the 
beautiful apse of the Duomo of Pienza were destroyed; a 
vast winding chasm opened under the choir, and it is 
difficult to see how that part of the building can be saved. 
The devoted and loyal enthusiasm of Count Silvio Piccolomini 
is engaged in its preservation, and it is consoling to know, 
therefore, that what can be done to save the church will 
certainly be achieved, and that nothing will be left un- 
attempted. This young nobleman, whose ancestor founded 
the city of Pienza, is a type I find rare in Italy, and not 
common anywhere. King in his little country, he is a 
veritable magician, bringing order out of any chaos, and his 
thoughtfulness for his own people and his kindness to 
strangers are well known through all the country-side. To 
watch him with the workmen in the Duomo or with the 
city fathers, or among the children of his capital, is to hope 
for modern Italy. If Count Silvio's ways and character 
ever become common form among his brother nobles, be 
sure we shall see a new, strong, and steadfast kingdom after 
all in Italy, and no one, I think, will desire this more heartily 
than those who are least content with her as she is. 

The church which Count Silvio is so earnestly trying to 
save is a fine Renaissance building, with a beautiful fagade, 
with the arms of Pio II in the architrave ; divided into three 
naves of equal height by eight travertine columns. The 
most charming feature is the apse, which is in such grave 
danger, and from outside, the tower, the most prominent 
feature in Pienza as seen from a distance. 

Our delight in the church itself, however, is vastly increased 



PIENZA AND S. QUIRICO D' ORCIA 235 

when we find that its ancient treasures of art — the best of 
them at least in the way of pictures — have been preserved to 
it and not hidden away in the Museo. Three masterpieces 
of Sienese painting greet us here each in its own chapel. 

In the first chapel on the right is a splendid altarpiece by 
Matteo di Giovanni. The Virgin sits enthroned with her little 
Son on her knee in the act of blessing, while around her stand 
S. Bartolommeo, S. Lucia, S. Matthew, and S. Catherine, with 
two little angels. 

In the first chapel on the left is a fine work by Sano di 
Pietro. The Virgin enthroned with our Lord — an apple in 
His left hand — is surrounded by S. James, S. Anne, S. Philip, 
and S. Mary Magdalen. 

In the second chapel in this aisle we find a magnificent 
altarpiece by Vecchietta of the Assumption. In the midst 
Mary, borne on a silver cloud by a crowd of angels, is caught 
into heaven, into Christ's arms, while beneath, beside her empty 
tomb, S. Thomas looks upward. On either side stand two 
saints, on the left S. Pio — first Pope of that name — and 
S. Agatha, and on the other S. Calisto and S. Catherine of 
Siena, whom the second Pio canonized. This work is, in 
fact, one of the masterpieces of the Sienese school of the 
fifteenth century ; it gives us to understand to how great a 
place in religious art the painters of that school had been 
called. 

On coming out from the Duomo one has on one's right the 
Arcivescovado,and it is there that the Museum has found a home. 
This small collection, with its various treasures of tapestry, of 
Opus Anglicanum, of sculptures and paintings, is by no means 
to be ignored. It is true I would rather see the marvellous 
Pienza cope, made in England and presented by Tomasso 
Paleologus to Pio II, worn by the Bishop in the Duomo for 
the Matins of Christmas : it is true I should rejoice to hear 
Vespers sung from the wonderful choir-books splendid with 
miniatures on some winter afternoon as I sat under the 
great altarpiece of Matteo da Siena, but since that is impossible, 
I will take care not to deprive my eyes of their pleasure and 



236 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

joy in the Museo of Pienza. As for the cope, who can praise 
it well or remember without regret that we made it in England 
when we were happy, and cannot match it now ? Indeed, 
there is nothing so fine in England of England's own work, 
the only piece able to match it being the cope at Ascoli, 
but this is the finer of the two. The Pienza cope repre- 
sents in its exquisitely embroidered figures, in the first two 
half-circles, the Life of the Blessed Virgin, beneath which, 
dividing this first from the second half-circle, are set eight of 
her ancestors, including David and Solomon. The twelve 
apostles divide the second from the third and last half-circle 
of figures, which represents the Life of S. Catherine of Alex- 
andria. The foundation of this magnificent vestment is linen, 
but it is completely hidden by an embroidered field of gold ; 
on this are set the figures of various-coloured silk. 

The cope, though it be the most splendid, is not the only 
relic of Pio II we find in the Museo. There too are his 
Crosier and his Pyx, certain mitres, and other vestments and 
ornaments. 

The pictures — a splendid though as yet ill-arranged collec- 
tion gathered in a room far too small for them — are hung in 
the next room. Here is a fine Madonna and Child with 
S. John Baptist, S. Biagio, S. Niccola, and S. Floriano by 
Vecchietta. Above is a beautiful lunette of the Annuncia- 
tion, while in the predella are three panels : the Crucifixion in 
the midst, and on one side the Martyrdom of S. Biagio, and 
on the other that most delightful story of how S. Niccola saved 
the three maidens — asleep here in their beds — from harlotry. 

Close by is a charming work by Giovanni di Paolo of the 
Madonna and Child with SS. Bernardino, Jerome, Francis, and 
Chiara ; above in the lunette is a marvellously lovely Piet^ 
hesitating to be realistic ; while in the predella are three tondi 
of saints, and at each end the Piccolomini arms. The colour 
and quality of this work are remarkable. 

Bartolo di Fredi calls us next with a lovely Virgin of Mercy 
and two Angels : a sweet and gracious picture. Then, of all 
things, we find a Sassetta, a small triptych of the Madonna and 




Diioino Pienza 



ASSUMPTIOX OF THE VIRGIN 



S^BJ* 



or .^5V> 



UNlvi^l^ 



or 'Ty 



PIENZA AND S. QUIRICO D' ORCIA 237 

Child with S. John and some woman saint, and in the pinnacles 
God the Father and angels. 

A fine and even exquisite work by Matteo di Giovanni is the 
last notable picture in the room. This is a Madonna and 
Child with four Saints ; above, God the Father ; below, three 
small tondi^ two saints and the Crucifixion. Two other works 
should be mentioned : one a diptych by an unknown master 
in which we see S. Pio and S. Andrea on a gold ground ; the 
other a triptych, maybe by Bartolo di Fredi, with many scenes 
from the lives of Christ and the Blessed Virgin. 

The great palace of Pienza, the Palazzo Piccolomini, fully 
comparable to any similar building in Florence or Siena, is 
well worth a visit ; its court and loggiata are very charming, 
and the hexagonal well there, carved with the arms of Pio, is 
worthy of Rossellino. Within the palace is some magnificent 
old furniture and a fairly good collection of family portraits, 
among them the only known likeness, I think, of Pio II. 

But the way calls us, and we must pursue it. 

As I have said, the inn at Pienza is clean and comfortable, 
the people are courteous and do their best for you, and you 
forget the humility of their arrangements in their real kindli- 
ness. Nothing half so good awaits you at S. Quirico d' Orcia 
or at Buonconvento. Indeed, it is not till you have climbed 
to that eagle's nest, Montalcino, that you can lie again like a 
Christian. 

It is a hard day's journey to go from Pienza vid, S. Quirico 
and Buonconvento to Montalcino, and should only be 
attempted with a pair of horses. He who goes afoot must 
be content to sleep either at S. Quirico or at Buonconvento, 
and I do not know that there is much to choose between 
them. 

As for the road thither from Pienza, it winds still across the 
hills till you come down into S. Quirico, a little town of one 
long street surrounded by perfect walls, with two remarkable 
romanesque churches. 

One of these, the pieve^ dedicated to S. Quirico and 
S. Giulitta is, I suppose, unique in Tuscany, being an almost 



238 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

complete specimen of a romanesque building so far as its 
exterior goes, with a fine bell-tower and three round-arched 
porticoes supported by pillars resting on lions. One of the 
doorways is in the south transept, another is in the south 
aisle, and the third is the great west doorway in the fagade. 
All of them are nobly decorated with sculpture, and date at 
latest from the twelfth century. 

Within the church there is a fine altarpiece by Sano di 
Pietro of the Madonna and Child with S. John Baptist, 
S. Quirico, S. Galgano, and S. John the Evangelist. Above 
is the Resurrection of our Lord, who releases the souls in Pur- 
gatory, while in the predella we see the Birth, Presentation, 
Marriage, Assumption, and Coronation of the Blessed Virgin. 

S. Quirico d' Orcia, on the high road to Rome from the 
north, was of old, before the coming of the railway, a place 
of some importance. Travellers lunched there after leaving 
Buonconvento, the first stage out of Siena, proceeding thence 
to Radicofani to sleep. It was once known as S. Quirico in 
Osenna, though no one seems able to explain why, and in the 
days of the Hohenstaufen it was the residence of an Imperial 
governor. After it came definitely into the power of Siena 
it was strongly fortified, and these walls are still happily almost 
perfect. But its greatest boast to-day is perhaps the Palazzo 
Chigi, a Sienese palace of the seventeenth century, and the 
ruined sixteenth-century park or gardens called the Orti 
Leonini. 



XXI 

BUONCONVENTO, MONTALCINO, 
AND BADIA S. ANTIMO 

IN S. Quirico we find ourselves once more on the Via 
Francigena, and it is along that great highway north- 
ward that we shall set out for Buonconvento. The way 
lies at first across the gaunt valley of the Tuomo and then over 
some bare hills down into the Val d' Asso, where, at Tor- 
renieri, we cross the line of railway that joins Asciano 
with Grosseto. 

Torrenieri is nothing but a huddle of houses. We follow 
the road, which climbs out of the valley of the Asso, and, 
crossing the watershed, descends into the valley of the 
Seriate, which it follows for some distance till it turns into 
the valley of the Ombrone, some three miles south of Buon- 
convento. 

Buonconvento, once the capital of all this region, the first 
post out of Siena on the road to Rome, the camping-place of 
an Emperor, has fallen on evil days. Already falling into 
decay, for traffic now follows the railway and knows the 
Via Francigena no more, its ruin was completed by the 
earthquake of a year ago, which shook it altogether and 
destroyed not a little of what had stood many centuries of 
war. It was only during the last month of 1909 that the 
soldiers who had been sent to render assistance to the in- 
habitants in their misfortune departed, and now what is left 
of Buonconvento would scarcely be worth a visit but for the 

239 



240 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

pictures in the Misericordia and in the Opera di SS. Pietro 
and Paolo. 

This small but still beautiful walled town that has just 
suffered so dreadful a visitation was the witness of the great 
tragedy that marked the end of the Middle Age, that brought 
Dante to his knees, and in reality finally disposed of the 
Imperial power in Italy — the death of Henry VII, Dante's 
Emperor. 

That barbarian, of whose nobility we hear so much and see 
so little, descended into Italy in 1310, dreaming of the feudal 
union of Germany and Italy. Nor was he alone in his dream. 
Every disappointed ambition in Italy, noble and ignoble, 
greeted him with feverish enthusiasm. Bitter with lone- 
liness, imprisoned in the adamant of his personality, Dante, 
amid the rocks of the Casentino, hurled his curses at 
Florence, who, with her allies, refused to receive him, or 
in fact, to call him anything but "Enemy " and "German King." 
Hailing Henry as " the Lamb of God who taketh away the 
sins of the world," Dante urged him to attack Florence, and 
in language at once blasphemous and runagate bade him 
destroy his native city. Henry, who seems to have been less 
intelligent than Dante had hoped, preferred to enter Rome, 
where he easily won the Capitol, but was fiercely opposed by 
King Robert of Naples, the head of the Guelf cause, when 
he tried to reach S. Peter's to win the Imperial crown. The 
Roman people, then certainly a mere rabble, took his part, 
however, and by threats and violence compelled the Bishops 
to crown him in the Lateran on 29 June, 131 2. 

Then the Emperor followed Dante's advice, and proceeded 
to lay siege to Florence. In this he was completely un- 
successful, and after six weeks, in which he never dared 
to make an attack, he raised the siege and set out for 
Poggibonsi, his health already ruined by anxiety and hard- 
ship, and his army, as was always the case both before and 
since, broken and spoiled by the Italian climate. He spent 
the winter and spring between Poggibonsi and Pisa, then, with 
some idea of retrieving all by invading Naples, he set off 




THE GATE OF BUONCONVENTO 



OF THE 

UNrVERSITY 

Of 



BUONCONVENTO 241 

southward in August. On the 24th of the month, the day 
of S. Bartholomew, he was in Buonconvento, and there on 
that day he died worn out, or poisoned, as some say, in the 
Communion. 

What that invasion which Dante hailed with so much 
enthusiasm meant to Italy, we may gather from an old 
chronicle in the Communal Library of Siena, quoted by 
Mr. Heywood in his "Ensamples of Fra Filippo." 

"The said Emperor Henry of Luxembourg moved his 
camp from Pancole with all his host Thursday, the sixteenth 
day of August, and came burning. And he pitched his camp 
at Stigliano and at Orgia Thursday, the sixteenth day of 
August. 

"The Emperor Henry of Luxembourg moved his camp 
from Stigliano and from Orgia Wednesday, the twenty-second 
day of August, and went burning and pitched his camp the 
said day at the Badia Ardenga and at Buonconvento. 

"Also during the said Signoria, the Emperor Henry of 
Luxembourg died in camp at Buonconvento, Friday, the 
twenty -fourth day of August, the day of Saint Bartholomew." 

In these few and simple words we learn all we need know 
of the "noble" ways of Dante's idol. When he died, either 
from disease or poison, on 24 August, there can have been 
no man in all Southern Tuscany but sang Te Deum. As for 
Dante, is there a good word for any of the cities of his father- 
land anywhere in all his work ? 

But it was not only in the Middle Age that Buonconvento 
had some fame. All through the Renaissance down to our 
own day almost it was of international importance as being a 
post on the great highway to Rome. There all our fathers 
have slept and cursed the bed and the fare as heartily as some 
of us will do. 

To go no farther back than the early years of the nineteenth 
century, we find evidence of its importance to travellers. 
Even the inn was called // Cavallo Inglese — the English 
Horse — a sure sign of its foreign fame. 

A traveller, one of our own countrywomen, writing in 181 7, 

R 



242 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

just after the close of the Great War, has left us an account of 
the place and what it stood for in the journey to Rome. 

"... Night closed in upon us long before we reached our 
destined place of rest, the wretched osteria of the still more 
wretched village of Buonconvento. Thither, where a weari- 
some pilgrimage of four mortal hours had at last conducted 
us, its half-starved-looking denizens would not admit us into 
the humble pig-sty in which they wallowed themselves, but 
conducted us to a lone, uninhabited house on the other side 
of the way, in which there was not a human being. We were 
ushered up an old ghastly staircase, along which the wind 
whistled mournfully, into an open hall, the raftered roof of 
which was overhung with cobwebs and the stone floor was 
deep in filth. Four doors entered into this forlorn-looking 
place, two of which led to the chill, dirty, miserable holes 
which were our destined places of repose, and the other two 
to rooms that the people said did not belong to them ; neither 
did they give any very distinct or satisfactory account of who 
might be their tenants — one old woman assuring us they were 
inhabited by * nessuno^ while the other maintained they were 
occupied by ^ galanf uomini.^ 

" It was miserably cold ; the wind blew about us, and we 
could get no fire. But there was no remedy for these 
grievances, and we resigned ourselves to fate and to bed. 
The two hideous old beldames who had brought us our 
wretched supper had left us for the night, and no human 
being was near us, when we heard the sound of a heavy 
foot on the creaking staircase, and a man wrapped in a 
cloak and armed with a sword and a musket stalked into 
the hall. 

" He informed us that he had the honour of lodging in the 
house, that he was the only person who had that honour, and 
that he should have the honour of sleeping in the next room 
to ours. 

" Finding him so courteous, and being aware there was no 
means of getting quit of him, we treated him on our part with 
the utmost civility, perhaps upon the principle that the 



BUONCONYENTO 243 

Indians worship the devil; and, exchanging the salutation 
of ' Felicissima notte^ our whiskered neighbour retreated into 
his apartment, the key of which he had in his pocket. We 
contented ourselves with barricading our doors with the only 
table and chair that our desolate chamber contained ; then in 
uncurtained and uncoverleted wretchedness, upon flock beds, 
the prey of innumerable fleas, and shaking with cold, if not with 
fear, we lay the livelong night ; not even having wherewithal 
to cover us, for the potent smell of the filthy rag which per- 
formed the double duties of blanket and quilt obliged us to 
discard it, and our carriage cloaks were but an inadequate 
defence against the blasts that whistled through the manifold 
chinks of the room." 

Buonconvento to-day, in spite of the earthquake, is by no 
means so poor or so rough a place as it seems to have been 
a hundred years ago, and for its poverty there are many con- 
solations in the way of pictures. 

In the Church of the Misericordia there is a fine picture of 
the Assumption of the Virgin by Pietro di Domenico and a 
predella of the Life of the Blessed Virgin. But it is the Opera 
di SS. Pietro and Paolo, the ancient pieve in the Borgo di 
Mezzo, where the Palazzo Pubblico and the Palazzo Taj stand, 
that the best pictures are to be found. Here are works by 
Taddeo di Bartolo, by Matteo di Giovanni, by Girolamo di 
Benvenuto, by Sano di Pietro, and by Pacchiarotto. The 
Taddeo di Bartolo is a panel of S. Anthony Abbot and the 
Magdalen. The Matteo di Giovanni stands over the high 
altar, and is a panel of the Madonna and Child. The 
Girolamo di Benvenuto is on the left side of the church j 
it represents the Annunciation with S. Francis and S. Anthony 
Abbot. By Sano di Pietro are two works — a triptych of the 
Madonna with S. Catherine and S. Bernardino and a panel 
of the Annunciation. As for Pacchiarotto, his picture is in 
the sacristy, and represents the Madonna and Child with 
S. John Baptist, S. Peter, S. Paul, and S. Sebastian. It 
is an early work. 

There is not much else in Buonconvento nowadays to cause 



244 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

us to linger there. You, as I did, will soon set off westward 
and south on the long climb by Bibbiano and the passage of 
the Ombrone up to Montalcino, the eagle's nest that the 
doves have occupied : and all the way is a song. 

No better fate, no more happy destiny can await any 
traveller in Tuscany than that which leads him on a summer 
morning into Montalcino — one of the most lovely, one of 
the most pleasant, and one of the dearest places in a land 
where there is always something to be thankful for. Yet, even 
in that " cara e beata e benedetta Toscana patria d' ogni 
eleganza e d' ogni gentil costume, e sede eterna di civilta," 
as Leopardi rightly called it, there is but one Montalcino. 
Its perfections are so many and, gathered all together into an 
eerie for eagles, they must truly be unique. First, the place 
is full of girls, and nearly all of them are pretty. Then the 
people are of a sweetness and courtesy that are rare even 
in Italy; then the churches are charming and are full of 
pictures; then the country round about is delicious; and 
last, the inn is a paradise of comfort, welcome, and good 
living — indeed, till you have been to the inn at Montalcino 
you are utterly ignorant of what a country inn in Tuscany 
can be. 

Of the beauty of the women I shall say little, and, indeed, 
nothing ; for in Montalcino they have still some rags of virtue, 
and I know too well that any excuse is good enough for the 
companies that build electric tramways. Of the courtesy of 
the people I would say much, but can say no more than that 
it reminded me that Montalcino is and always was Sienese, 
rather than Florentine, and that it was here the Republic 
made its last stand : and that, by the way, may have some- 
thing to do with the really incredible beauty of the maidens 
hereabout. Of the churches and their treasures, as of 
Montalcino itself, I shall say more anon; but of the inn 
I will speak at once out of the fullness of my heart, for 
it is a hostelry in a thousand. 

There is much talk in every guide-book, from Herr Baedeker 
through Murray to Joanne, of hotels — first-class, second-class. 



MONTALCINO 245 

and tolerable, as they say in their curt, unexpansive way ; but 
what does the ordinary traveller always on the look-out for 
the disgusting luxury of the " Ritz " or the " Carlton " or the 
" Waldorf Astoria " understand, I should like to know, of inns ? 
Pure nothing. So long as he gets his money's worth of gilded 
and gaudy rooms, of rich food, lifts, electric apparatus, and 
other follies, he is content to put up with being a number 
like a convict and with being robbed like any poor devil held 
up on the road. Such places have nothing to say to travellers. 
Let us thank God for it. The inns I know in half a hun- 
dred places in Italy — in S. Gimignano, for instance, in Castel- 
Fiorentino, in Foligno, in Fivizzano, in Narni, and Volterra — 
are human places, where you will find friends, a soft bed, 
well-cooked food, a good wine, and a welcome. These places 
should be treasured in the memory and not too easily or 
widely published abroad; for an inn may be spoiled by its 
guests. Nevertheless, for once, out of pure charity and love 
of my fellow-men, I will praise the inn of the Lily (which 
Herr Baedeker calls tolerable) at Montalcino. I will say 
that it is the best I know, that I have been happy there, and 
that there I lived like a king. At night I slept soft and clean, 
I ate well and punctually at the hours I had appointed, I was 
welcomed and I made friends, and from there I issued forth 
to see the magnificent town of Montalcino, tomb of the Sienese 
Republic ; thither again I returned when I would, glad at 
heart, as to my own home. 

You enter it out of the narrow street by a low door that 
brings you straight into a great odoriferous kitchen with an 
open hearth, where there are always many good folk at work 
at their victuals, and where, as I think properly, the host and 
his family dwell. The place is no rat-hole where they stew 
messes in secret, but open to all ; the floor is cold stone and 
you may spill wine upon it and do no hurt, and you may talk 
there with the company and rejoice in your fellow-men. The 
time to see it at its best is about noon on a market-day, when 
it resembles nothing so much as the Italian Chamber during 
a debate ; but for me, I love it most at evening, when the 



246 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

guests are few but rare of their kind, and when, if it be winter, 
you may be cosy by the fire and smoke and talk with your 
host, who is a travelled man, or with the Farmacista, who is a 
learned one and a graduate of the University of Rome, or with 
your hostess, who is all for comfort, or with some ancient 
of the village who remembers everything, or with some be- 
nighted friar whose important day's work has included the 
exorcising of a witch, or with the young men of the village, 
who are full of their affairs, or very softly with the daughter 
of the tobacconist, who is all a mother. If you want character, 
here it is ; if you want entertainment, here you may find it ; if 
politics be your hobby, here you may get your fill of them ; 
and if love be your theme, you will hear many astonishing 
things and find an attentive listener. How can I praise you 
as I ought, O inn of the Lily, or wish you well enough ? May 
you prosper always but not too much, may you ever be full of 
the world about you, may you gather in many strangers but 
not too many, and may S. Cristofano see to it that all these 
things come true for you. 

As for the bedrooms of the inn of the Lily, they are the 
sweetest and the cleanest in all Tuscany, and every one of 
them — there are but few — has a different and a perfect view. 
One looks, it may be, towards Buonconvento and one towards 
Pienza, but the fairest of all looks across the near valleys, over 
the olive gardens to the blue hills and Mont' Amiata, and that 
is the one for me. 

Seeing, then, that all these things are as they are, it is no 
wonder that one finds Montalcino delightful. And, indeed, 
who could find it anything else ? It clings to the great hills 
high up like the nest of an eagle ; it is set above the woods, 
across the olive gardens it looks to the desert, over the vine- 
yards it looks to the hills. 

As for its history, it has much in common with Monte- 
pulciano, for it too was a bone of contention between Florence 
and Siena, but its end was more glorious. For when the 
French on 21 April, 1555, passed out of the City of the 
Virgin by the Porta Romana, there went along with them, 



MONTALCINO 247 

we read, a vast company of the citizens of Siena, who loved 
liberty more than they loved their own city, which they left 
finally ruined in the hands of Charles V. This remnant 
of the old Republic set out with their women and children, 
their goods and chattels, upon the long road that leads to 
Montalcino, which they determined to make the last refuge 
of the Sienese Republic. " Ubi cives^ ibi patria^^'' said they, 
and so it was. Among that invincible company were to be 
found many of the noblest in the city — Tolomei, Piccolomini, 
Brudini, Spanuocchi. Not all reached that last refuge : some, 
already weak with hunger after the siege, fell by the wayside ; 
but the indomitable remnant marched on with Montluc, 
*' toiling along after his troopers down the dusty Roman road, 
the father holding the daughter's hand, the mother carrying 
her baby, going forth into a dreary wilderness because they 
would not submit to the hated Spanish rule." *^ Never in my 
life," said Montluc, " have I seen a parting so piteous. . . . 
At the sight of their misery I could not keep back my tears, 
so great was my sorrow for a people which had shown itself 
willing to give up so much to save its liberty." ^ All in vain. 
The " Republic of Siena in Montalcino '' only lasted for two 
years, and even during that time it was ruled by the French 
commander. In 1559 the Montalcinesi surrendered to Duke 
Cosimo, who then held practically all Tuscany, save the 
territory of Orbetello and the city of Lucca. 

Little remains in Montalcino to remind us of that forlorn 
and heroic hope ; only the old fortress, half in ruins, and even 
there the arms of the Grand-Duke are the most conspicuous 
ornament. Yet as one wanders about the city and out on to 
the wild heights above it, with the mighty panorama of moun- 
tain and valley about one, it is really the Republic of Siena 
we remember, that unstable, inefficient but heroic government 
which so surely reflected the character of the Sienese, and which 
here, in this lovely hill town, has found a noble grave on the 
confines of its fatherland. 

^ Montluc, "Commentaries" (Bordeaux, 1592), fol. 107*. Quoted by 
L. Douglas, "History of Siena" (Murray, 1902), p. 262. 



248 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

But history is not alone in having left its memories for us 
to examine, and perhaps to weep over, in Montalcino. The 
town is full of artistic treasures of considerable beauty and 
importance. In the Church of S. Agostino, for instance, 
now under repair, we find the choir to have been entirely 
covered with frescoes by Fredi, fragments of which remain, 
which we shall be able to study to more advantage later when 
a paternal Government has finally uncovered them from white- 
wash. Already something has been done ; the old windows of 
the church, once simple and lovely, have been opened, and 
we may even to-day note the fine rose over the west door 
and the delicious double cloisters. Stored away in these 
cloisters, too, are a picture by Fredi and another by 
Vecchietta. 

Opposite S. Agostino, in the chapel of the Sacro Sacramento, 
on either side of the west door, is one of those fourteenth- 
century Annunciations, two great wooden figures, such as we 
have learned to love in Castel-Fiorentino and S. Gimignanoj 
and over an altar on the Epistle side of the chapel stands 
a picture of the Madonna of Mercy, very lovely in a white 
dress, attributed by Mr. Perkins to Tamagni. 

From S. Agostino we pass into the northern part of the 
town to the Church of S. Francesco, where, over the western 
door, is a terra-cotta of the Madonna and Child with S. Peter, 
S. John Baptist and two angels of Robbia ware, and in a 
niche in the south wall a figure of S. Sebastian of the same 
school. The cloisters here, too, are very fine, and from the 
piazza in front of the church a great view of Montalcino opens 
before one over the ancient olives. 

Descending hence into the valley to regain the city, we come 
as we climb again to the little Church of S. Croce, where, over 
the sacristy door in the south wall, is a very fine and interest- 
ing picture of the Crucifixion by Girolamo Genga, with the 
influence of Signorelli and Pinturicchio strong upon it. Over 
the high altar stands a picture of the Madonna and Child 
with the two Saints by Beccafumi, a genuine work from the 
master's hand usually called a school piece. 



MONTALCINO 249 

The most delightful church of Montalcino, however, is set 
some way outside it on the road to Torrenieri, and there you 
will find what I take to be the finest picture in the city. The 
church belongs to a long since suppressed Franciscan Convent 
of Osservanti, whose name it bears, and its great treasure is 
the picture of the Assumption by Girolamo di Benvenuto 
over the west door, which reminds one of his father's 
work at Asciano. Here, too, over the fourth altar, on the 
left, is a picture of S. Bernardino with two exquisite angels 
by Sano di Pietro, and opposite to it a Piet^ by some pupil of 
Sodoma. 

From the Osservanza we have a fine view of the castello of 
Montalcino, which is certainly worth a visit. 

On our way back through the city we pass the Palazzo 
Pubblico, where there is a small picture gallery containing 
the ancient treasures of the churches. To take the pictures 
in order: (i) The Madonna and Child in a garden of 
roses with angels, is by Sano di Pietro; (2) The Madonna 
and Child is the masterpiece of Tomme, a wonderful 
panel, the best thing he ever did; (3) The Nativity is by 
Girolamo di Benvenuto; (4) The Coronation of the Virgin 
is the masterpiece of Fredi. This is the centre panel only of 
an altarpiece, the rest of which is in the gallery at Siena. 
(5) The Blood of the Redeemer by Girolamo di Benvenuto. 
It is a curious picture. Christ stands supporting the Cross 
between S. Angelo and S. Egidio, the Precious Blood pouring 
from His side over a wafer into a chalice. Above is God the 
Father and four angels. (6) The Deposition. This is part of 
an altarpiece by Bartolo di Fredi, signed and dated, the four 
saints (two panels) high up on the end wall belong to it, as 
do two panels of the Baptism and a scene from the Life of 
S. Philip of Montalcino here. In the background is the 
Cathedral of Siena. (7) High up on the window wall is a 
Madonna and Child with two angels, a fine and interesting 
work by Tomme. (8) Scenes from the Life of S. Philip of 
Montalcino. These two panels on either side the window 
probably belong to the Deposition altarpiece (No. 6). (9) The 



250 SIENA AND SOUTHEEN TUSCANY 

Madonna and Child is a spoiled and very wonderful early 
Pacchiarotto, according to Mr. Perkins. Mr. Berenson, 
however, calls it a Francesco di Giorgio. 

On leaving the delightful little gallery, if you will take my 
advice you will climb up to \hQ fortezza^ where the Republic of 
Siena made its last stand, and so making your way into the 
hills above the city look over the world. It is wild and beau- 
tiful and mysterious enough to be worth all the fatigue of the 
way. Moreover, the road which leaves the city thus by the 
hills will bring you in some eight miles to the forgotten abbey 
of S. Antimo and so to the railway that joins Asciano to 
Grosseto at Mont' Amiata Station. 

The Abbey of S. Antimo was in the Middle Age one of 
the greater Benedictine monasteries in Italy, and indeed it 
was the most formidable ecclesiastical feud in Tuscany, with 
the exceptions of the Badia S. Salvatore in Mont' Amiata and 
the Badia S. Galgano in the Val di Merse. Moreover, it was, 
and still is even in its ruin, one of the best examples in 
Italy of Romanesque architecture, or rather of that kind of 
Romanesque peculiar to the eleventh century. "It is pre- 
cisely in these new ecclesiastical structures," writes Canestrelli 
— new, that is, as being the production of a world awakened 
to a new youth by the passing of the millennium which was 
supposed to bring the world to an end — "it is precisely in 
these new ecclesiastical structures that we see the earliest 
examples of that transitional style of architecture which con- 
tinued to develop itself through the eleventh, twelfth, and 
part of the thirteenth centuries, and to which the name of 
Romanesque was justly given because in the world of art its 
development was coeval and corresponded with that of the 
Romance tongues in the world of Literature." Whatever we 
may think of that explanation, we may note that one of the 
most notable features of this new style was the substitution of 
the vaulted stone roofs for the older wooden ones ; now though 
this was of slow growth, beginning with the covering of the 
aisles when the nave was still roofed with wood, it became at 
last universal, though the mixed style was long used in Italy 



S. ANTIMO 251 

even in the twelfth century, when it seems the Abbey of 
S. Antimo was built. 

As we see it to-day even, the Church of S. Antimo seems 
to us perhaps the most beautiful interior in Tuscany, though 
the Cathedrals of Pisa and Lucca are maybe more firmly 
established in our hearts. But in any case it is so fine that 
it is worth any trouble to see, and since it lies within an easy 
drive of Montalcino and on the direct road to the railway it 
should on no account be missed. The country, too, is wild 
and beautiful to a degree we had not thought perhaps Tuscany 
could boast, and all the way Mont' Amiata guards the horizon. 
So lonely and so wide is this stretch of almost unknown upland 
that when in the gathering twilight one sees the few lights even 
of the wretched huts about Mont' Amiata station one feels a 
sort of relief. And for me at least it was with a kindness I had 
never felt before for any railway that I entered the train there 
and returned to Torrenieri.^ 

^ From Torrenieri it is easy to reach Grosseto, Orbetello, and the towns 
of the Maremma. I propose to deal with the Maremma in another 
volume. 



XXII 

CASTIGLIONE D' ORCIA AND 
RADICOFANI 

FROM Orbetello (should you visit that town on this 
journey) there are two ways by which it is possible 
to return into Tuscany — the one by road, the other by rail. 
The route by road leads through Manciano, once a posses- 
sion of the Abbey of S. Salvatore in Mont' Amiata, with 
its splendid Rocca of the Aldobrandeschi of Sovana, through 
Pitigliano of the Counts of the name, where in the Duomo 
is a fine picture by Cozzarelli of the Madonna and Child 
with S. Peter and S. Francis, painted in 1484, to Aqua- 
pendente and Radicofani in the Via Francigena — two days' 
journey by carriage. This wild and beautiful road passes 
through a little-known country to the south of Mont' Amiata, 
crossing the Fiora, the principal river of that mountain, just 
beyond Manciano. The easier way by rail will bring you 
back so far as Torrenieri, where a good sort of carriage can 
be hired for the drive along Via Francigena to Radicofani, 
taking Castiglione d' Orcia on the way. 

Leaving Torrenieri early in the morning, it is not difficult 
to reach Radicofani by nightfall. The road passes through 
S. Quirico, and so into the wilder country of Val d' Orcia 
between Mont' Amiata and the Cetona mountains with 
Radicofani always before one, rising out of the midst of the 

valley like a haggard boast, threatening but empty. To visit 

252 



CASTIGLIONE D' ORCIA 253 

Castlglione d' Orcia — and it is very worthy of a visit — it is 
necessary to leave the Via Francigena at the Baths of Vignone 
just where the road crosses the Orcia, and to climb the 
steep road on the right into this little forlorn fortress of a town 
which was able so effectually to hold the Roman road at the 
mouth of so difficult a pass. 

Castiglione d' Orcia was one of the many fortresses in this 
difficult and lonely country in the possession of the Aldo- 
brandeschi of Santfiora. Santa Flora ^ itself, their capital and 
almost impregnable fortress, high up on the southern flank of 
Mont' Amiata, gave them no control of the Roman road 
which it must have been one of their chief necessities to 
obtain. The great castle of Radicofani, which certainly 
held it, they were never able to get possession of, for when 
the Abbey of S. Salvatore declined, it was already in the 
hands of Siena and the Holy See. The control of the Via 
Francigena, which enabled them to rob any caravan that 
came by, and practically to hold up the trade of Siena with 
the Eternal City, was given them by this little fortress of 
Castiglione d' Orcia, and, as one might suppose, it was the 
first of their possessions to be wrested from them by the 
Sienese. In 1250 the Commune of Siena took the castello\ 
but even then they had not done with it, for twenty years 
after the battle of Montaperto it formed a nest for the Sienese 
fuorusciti^ and was only taken after a siege of forty days, and 
then by chance. It was not really till April, 1300, that the 
Sienese made themselves masters of the place, when the 
Counts of S. Flora were compelled to renounce for ever their 
dominion in the place, and received a payment of 3,000 florins 
in compensation. In 1368, when Siena was ruled by the 
Dodici^ Castiglione came into the hands of the Salimbeni, who 
built there the. castello whose ruins we now see. Their rule 
lasted till 14 18, when the place was once more incorporated 

* For a description and the history of S. Fiora, as for the whole of 
Mont' Amiata, see my "In Unknown Tuscany," with notes by William 
Heywood (Methuen, 1909). There a complete history of the Aldo- 
brandeschi is given, pp. 139-164. 



254 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

within the dominion of the Republic. Over a hundred years 
later, in 1554, the Imperial army was able to enter the place 
without encountering any resistance ; by then, doubtless, the 
fortress was practically useless. One's chief delight in 
Castiglione d' Orcia to-day is certainly its extraordinary posi- 
tion, but for me at least its wealth of pictures is something 
by no means to be ignored. The three great churches are 
full of fine things ; even the pieve dedicated to SS. Stefano 
e Degno, though it has nothing else, possesses a beautiful 
picture of our Lady by Pietro Lorenzetti, that is not only a 
miracle picture, but also a curious and very interesting work 
of art. It is, however, in S. Maria Maddalena, in S. Simeone 
and S. Stefano, that the chief treasures of Castiglione d' Orcia 
are hid. 

In S. Maria Maddalena, for instance, there is a magnificent 
panel picture of the Madonna by Lippo Memmi, a thing so 
fair and devout that one might be accounted fortunate to see 
it at the price of a day's journey, yet in the same church there 
is a delightful, though damaged, work by Vecchietta — the 
Madonna and Child with four Angels. Nor is this all, for in 
S. Simeone not far away there is a fine Madonna of Mercy 
by Bartolo di Fredi, and a splendid panel picture of the 
Madonna and Child by Giovanni di Paolo. 

Castiglione d' Orcia will not hold you long, however, for the 
glory of the road truly begins only when you have left it. 

At first on that wonderful road you pass through Val d' Orcia, 
then climbing slowly in the sunset, the beautiful cities begin 
to shine about you — Castiglione d' Orcia that you have just 
left ; Pienza, that lovely vanity ; Montepulciano, like a rose on 
the hills ; and before you, between the mountains, the scarped 
ruin of Radicofani soars like an eagle over the valley and the 
road to Rome. Nightfall should find you there in the little 
albergo under the ruined fortress of Ghino di Tacco. 

Originally belonging to the monks of S. Salvatore in Mont* 
Amiata, Radicofani, the most splendidly situated of all the 
fortresses on the Roman road, was divided in 1253, and half 
the castello given by the Abbot to Pope Eugenius III and his 



RADICOFANI 255 

successors. Later, the place formed the last fortress of the 
Patrimony of S. Peter, or the last fortress of the Sienese, as 
it happened, for both possessed it, the one after the other, 
during many years. Finally it came to Siena, and later, like 
all the rest of the Sienese castella^ it formed a part of the 
Granducato of Tuscany. 

To-day Radicofani is a little naked village straggling round 
the jagged hill under the fortress, with three churches, a fine 
clock -tower, many old houses and a beautiful palace, 
evidently the Palazzo del Governo, now a prison, covered 
with coats of arms ; while without the gates are a Capuchin 
convent, a pretty place enough, among trees too, now 
secularized; and the old Posta, "The Great Duke's Inn," 
where Richard Lassels on his way to Rome in the seventeenth 
century tells us he dined. " From Siena," he says, " we went 
to Bon ConventOy Tornieri^ S. Quirico^ an inconsiderable place 
upon the rode, and so to Radicofano, a strong Castle upon 
a high hill built by Desiderius^ King of the Longobards. This 
is the last place of the Florentine State^ but not the least in 
strength. Dineing here at the Great Duke's Inn^ at the 
bottom of the hill, we went to lodge at Acquapendente^ which 
is some twelve miles oif, and the first toune of the Pope's 
State." 

Of the three churches within the walls, S. Antonio beside 
S. Pietro in the little Piazza sopra Mura looking towards 
Rome contains nothing ; but as though to make up for the 
emptiness of his brother, S. Pietro has a wealth of beautiful 
things, the work of the Robbias, whom, as I suppose, the 
Sforza of Santa Flora brought here, when, as their arms over 
the Palazzo del Governo go to show, they ruled in the place. 
Entering the church by the western door, over the first altar 
to the right is a statue of S. Catherine made of that humble 
terra-cotta we know so well, and enamelled simply white — a 
touching and lovely piece of work one is surprised to find in 
this lonely place. But then, since all the guide-books have 
ignored Radicofani, as they have ignored Mont' Amiata, one 
expects to find nothing there, whereas both Radicofani and 



256 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Santa Flora are as rich in della Robbia ware as any city in 
Tuscany, save Florence. Here in S. Pletro opposite that 
statue of S. Catherine on the first altar to the left is a lovely 
altarpiece of blue and white with Madonna in the midst, with 
S. John Baptist on one side and S. Antonio of Padua, with 
his pig, on the other. In the right transept is another 
splendid altarpiece of the Crucifixion, with S. Mary Magdalen 
kneeling at the foot of the Cross ; and in the left transept yet 
another. Madonna in the midst, with S. Catherine of Alexandria 
and S. Michael Archangel. In the little church of S. Agata, 
in the main street of Radicofani, we find their work again, 
in the great altarpiece behind the high altar, of Madonna 
between S. Francesco, S. Agata, S. Lorenzo, and S. Catherine. 
On the left wall of the nave, high up in a little cupboard, is 
hidden a curious and tiny model in plaster of Radicofani 
itself, with Madonna above, protecting it, together with S. 
Agata and S. EmiUo. 

How did the Robbia clan come to so far-away a place as 
this? And who were they of all those we may name? It 
might seem certain that the Sforza lords of S. Fiora in the 
fifteenth century, as we know, holding Radicofani, too, as 
Podesta brought Andrea della Robbia and his pupils, perhaps 
not only to Santa Fiora, where so much of their work remains, 
but to Radicofani also, where in the small but beautiful 
churches even to-day their work, so full of coolness in the 
summer heats, shines with the country flowers upon the altars 
not less in place than they. 

S. Pietro, too, the parish church, has a treasure less tangible, 
certainly, but perhaps to some of us at any rate not less 
precious than its della Robbia ware — a legend "of the 
judgement which befell a very great and cruel usurer of 
the town of Radicofani." Fra Filippo tells the tale in his 
" Ensamples." 

"There was," says he, "in the town of Radicofani a 
wretched man ; and albeit he became very old, it might be 
said of him as saith the proverb : * Accursed is the child 
of a hundred years old.' All the days of his life this wretched 



RADICOFANI 257 

man lent money upon usury, and never had he any sickness. 
And although he had many vices, especially was he covetous 
and avaricious and cruel, and an enemy of the poor, in far 
greater measure than the devil had known how to make him ; 
and rather would he that the victuals and other things which 
at any time remained over in his house should be flung away 
than that they should be given to the poor ; and never was he 
seen to give alms, nor was he willing that any should be given 
in his house. Now when his accursed days were ended, he 
was smitten suddenly with an apoplexy ; wherefore they laid 
him upon his bed. Afterward two young men were sent for 
a venerable physician of very holy life, who was a native of 
the town and dwelt therein. And this befell between two and 
three hours after nightfall. And when the physician had 
departed from his house toward the house of the sick man, 
and had gone half way thither, albeit the weather was clear 
and calm, and the heaven was full of stars, and no cloud was 
to be seen in the sky, yet there came a passing great thunder- 
ing and lightening so that all men were astonied ; and, when 
he had reached the door of the house, there followed another 
thunder clap with lightning twice as great as at the first, and, 
in like manner, all men were stunned thereby. And afterward, 
when he had entered the courtyard, and would have gone into 
the chamber of the wretched sick man, there came a third 
flash of lightning with a thundering so horrible that it stunned 
whomsoever was in the chamber ; and the physician and those 
who were with him in the house fell to the ground, and all 
the windows of the chamber where the sick man lay were 
broken and burst open, and all the lights which were in the 
house were put out; and they remained prostrate upon the 
ground for the space of a quarter of an hour or more ; and so 
terrified were they that none of them dared to raise himself 
up. Afterward, at the last, they lighted a lamp and went to 
the sick man and found him dead. And thus the devil carried 
away his soul. 

" Now, when I had already written the aforesaid ensample 
divers times, according as it had been told me by the son of 



258 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

the said physician, I afterward heard it from the lips of the 
physician himself, the which was a man of credit, at least 
ninety years old, of holy life, and a passing venerable person. 
He told me that there came on a sudden so great rain and 
hail and tempest that it seemed that all the town must be 
swallowed up ; and all the house trembled, and all the tiles 
of the roof thereof were beaten together ; and whoever was in 
the chamber swooned away, and, in the morning, all along the 
road which led from the house of the dead usurer out of 
Radicofani, for seven miles, the ground was covered with 
toads. And on one side of the road, and on the other, the 
trees and vines and thickets were all broken and splintered. 
And neither before nor after in that mountain of Radicofani 
was there ever seen a single toad. Moreover, the physician 
told me that the priest of the town buried that usurer in the 
church for money; wherefore afterward, in the night-time, 
there were heard such knockings and such tempest and 
clamour in the church, that no man in all the town might 
sleep therefrom. Wherefore in the morning, the people of 
the town hastened to the church and dug up that wretched 
body, and buried it without the town in the most base and 
shameful place that they could find." 

It is, however, to a more admirable villain that our 
thoughts continually turn, as we look up to the Rocca, that 
strange, fierce, almost grotesque fortress, ruined now, which 
under rain or sun dominates the whole village, and hangs 
there in the sky like some threatening stemma, some fantastic 
coat of arms. The country folk tell you that Ghino di Tacco 
still haunts the valley of the Paglia, and here in his own 
mountain, certainly, the remembrance of the man whose 
victim Dante met in Purgatory is never very far away : — 

"Quivi era I'Aretin, che dalle braccia 
Fiere di Ghin di Tacco ebbe la morte." 

(Canto vi 13-14.) 

But little, doubtless, remains of the fortress Ghino built on 
that mountain-top, whose scarped height overlooks not only 



RADICOFANI 259 

the valley of Paglia and the road to Rome, but the valley of 
Orcia, and the way to Siena, the pass over Cetona, too, and 
the roads to Chiusi and Umbria. As you climb to-day up 
that rough, steep way, among the stones to where, sailing high 
in air, the ruined castle still leers across the world, it is 
the remnants of the Sienese and Papal stronghold you pass, 
and yet it is certainly not of them you are thinking, but of the 
cruel exploits of that ruined gentleman, turned highwayman, 
who slew Benincasa to avenge his father, and captured the 
Abbot of Cligni, and won thereby peace for a little, but 
fell at last under the daggers, perhaps of the Counts of Santa 
Flora, who hated him, and whom he hated. 

Ghino di Tacco is a characteristic figure of his time. 
There must have been many such in Italy when the Signorotti^ 
having acquired their lordships rather than conquered them, as 
Aquarone insists, and the opportunity for any personal enter- 
prise of the sort having passed away, many a patrician found 
himself almost starving and at the mercy of the crowd in the 
city where he lived or had taken refuge. This seems to have 
been Ghino's case. There are many theories of his birth, but 
Aquarone, following Tommasi in this, comes to the conclusion 
that he was the son of Tacco Monaceschi de' Pecorai da 
Torrita. However this may be, Ghino was brought up as a 
boy to a wild and violent life till his family, his father, his 
brother Turino, and himself, " disgusted with the Republic " 
as Gigli says, were cacciata di Siena, expelled from Siena, 
Boccaccio tells us, one day in 1279. They became robbers, 
haunting the way between Siena and Asinalunga, till one day 
Siena thought fit to attend to them with a force some six 
hundred strong. They occupied Torrita. One day when 
Ghino was away on the road, Tacco his father, and Turino 
his brother were taken by the Sienese and imprisoned in 
Siena, and later tried before Messer Benincasa di Laterina, in 
the Aretino, Vicar of the Podestk. They were hanged ; but 
Ghino was free, and, as Aquarone puts it, while he was at 
large "the air of Siena no longer suited Messer Benincasa." 
So he sought some other business, elsewhere, and having no 



26o SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

little reputation in jurisprudence, he became Auditor Fapce 
and went to Rome. Even there, as it proved, he was not 
safe. Ghino was not to be denied. He had often looked up 
to the height of Radicofani as he lurked in the valley, perhaps 
often hidden there to spy out his prey, on a summer evening, 
when the stars shine like jewels in a monstrance round that 
spotless Host the moon. So, tired of robbing on the road as 
a common highwayman, and hoping to make himself still a 
lord, he determined to secure himself in that place. Nor was 
it long before it happened so, for with him to think was to 
act. And once established there like a bird of prey, he sat all 
day looking towards Rome. It was perhaps dawn when he 
set out with '* some four hundred of his brigands," as Gigli 
says, all on swift horses, heartily ready. Through that dawn 
and the day and the night they rode to Rome. They sur- 
prised a gate and held it. Then Ghino, with a few followers, 
rode through the city on to the Capitol, where he knew he 
would find Benincasa about his business. There indeed, " in 
an upper room at audience," he found him, killed him on the 
very judgment-seat, and taking his head, came away without 
hindrance. And re-mounting his horse, he rode in the midst 
of his few followers through the city, leaving it by the same 
gate through which he had come in, and so back to Radicofani, 
that he was then able to call his own. 

Now it was with something of the same persistent violence, 
less sinister, but not less fearless, that the enemy of God, the 
Pope, and the Counts of Santa Flora made his peace with 
Boniface VHI, as Boccaccio tells us, yet he came to die at 
last like a gentleman truly, and a lord, at bay, fighting, 
stabbed by a hundred wounds. 

" Ghino di Tacco," Boccaccio tells us in Elisa's story from 
the second novel on the last day of the Decameron — " Ghino 
di Tacco, a man both for his boldness and for his robberies 
sufficiently famous, being banished from Siena, and at enmity 
with the Counts of Santa Flora, caused Radicofani to revolt 
from the rule of the Church of Rome, and establishing 
himself there, he and his band robbed throughout the 



RADICOFANI 261 

neighbourhood. Now Boniface VIII being Pope in Rome, 
the Abbot of Cligni came to Court, and he was believed to 
be one of the richest Prelates in the world. His stay at 
Court having somewhat injured his digestion, he was advised 
by the doctors to go to the Baths of Siena, where he would be 
cured without a doubt. Obtaining leave from the Pope, 
without caring for the fame of Ghino, he set out on his 
road with much pomp of harness and baggage, with many 
horses and a whole retinue of servants. Ghino di Tacco, 
hearing of his coming, set his snares, and without losing the 
meanest stable-boy, in a narrow place captured the Abbot, 
with all his household and his possessions. This done, he 
sent, well accompanied, to ^k Abbot one of the wiUest of his 
men, who on his behalf told him very politely that he must be 
pleased to dismount and to visit Ghino in the Castello. 
When the Abbot heard this he was furious, and replied that 
he wanted for nothing, that one like himself had nothing to 
do with Ghino ; but that he would continue on his way, and 
he would like to see who would stop him. To whom the 
Ambassador, speaking humbly, said : * Messere, you are come 
to a part where, save for the power of God, nothing makes us 
afraid, and where excommunications and interdicts are them- 
selves excommunicated ; and therefore it would be better to 
satisfy Ghino in this.' During this conversation the place had 
already been surrounded by brigands, so that the Abbot, 
seeing himself and those with him prisoners, very scornfully 
followed the Ambassador towards the Castello, and there went 
along with him all his people and all his harness. Dis- 
mounting there, as Ghino wished, he was placed all alone 
in a small room of the palace, rather dark and inconvenient, 
and all his household, each according to his quality, was well 
lodged, and as for the horses and the baggage, they were taken 
good care of, no one touching anything. Later Ghino himself 
went to the Abbot and said to him : ' Messere Ghino, whose 
guest you are, sends praying you to be pleased to tell him 
where you are going, and on what occasion.' The Abbot, 
who, like a wise man, had already abated some of his haughti- 



262 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

ness, told him where he was going, and why. When Ghino 
heard this, he went off, determined to cure him without any 
baths. Having ordered a great fire to be kept constantly 
burning in the Abbot's room, which was small, he did not 
re-visit him till the next morning, and then in the whitest 
napkin he brought him two slices of bread, toasted, and a 
great cup of vernaccia da Corniglia, the Abbot's own, and 
said to him: * Messere, when Ghino was very young he 
studied in medicine, and he says that there will never be a 
better medicine for your complaint than that he will give 
you, of which these things which I bring are the beginning ; 
and therefore partake of them and be comforted.' The 
Abbot, who had rather eat than be witty, though still with 
a certain disdain, ate the bread and drank the vernaccia; 
then he began to say many things, a little haughtily, asking 
many things and advising many things, and especially he 
demanded that he might see Ghino himself. Hearing this, 
Ghino took no notice of much that he said, answered 
courteously the rest, and declaring that Ghino would visit 
him very soon, departed, only returning on the following 
day again with toasted bread and vernaccia ; and so he did 
many days, till he found the Abbot had eaten some dried 
beans which he had purposely carried and left there ; then on 
behalf of Ghino he asked the Abbot how he was. The 
Abbot replied : * It appears to me that I should be well 
enough if I were out of his hands ; after that I should 
have no greater desire than to eat, so thoroughly have his 
remedies cured me.' 

"Ghino then had a beautiful room prepared with the Abbot's 
own belongings, and caused a fine banquet to be set out, to 
which, with many men of the Castello, were invited all the 
household of the Abbot. The following morning he went to 
him and said : ' Messere, since you feel well, it is time you 
should quit this infirmary.' Then taking him by the hand, he 
led him into the room he had prepared; and leaving him 
there with his own people he went off to make sure the 
banquet should be magnificent. The Abbot amused himself 



RADICOFANI 263 

a little with his people, and gave them an account of his life, 
while they, on the other hand, told him how surpassing well 
they had been entertained by Ghino. But the hour for dining 
was come ; the Abbot and the others were nobly entertained 
with excellent food and wines, though Ghino did not even 
then declare himself. When the Abbot had been treated in 
this fashion for some days, Ghino, having made them put all 
his goods into a great room, and all his horses, even to the 
last pony, into a court under it, went to the Abbot and asked 
him how he felt, and whether he thought himself well enough 
to go on horseback. And the Abbot replied that he felt well 
enough, and was indeed thoroughly cured, and that he would 
be perfectly well if he could only get out of Ghino's hands. 
Then Ghino brought him into the room where were all his 
goods and all his whole household, and causing him to look 
from a window at all his horses, he said : * Messere Abate, you 
ought to know that it is not wickedness of heart which has 
caused Ghino di Tacco — for I am he — to become a highway 
robber and an enemy of the Court of Rome, but rather his 
position as a gentleman, driven from his own house, and the 
necessity to defend his life and nobility against many power- 
ful enemies ; but you appear to be an honourable lord, and as I 
have cured you of your illness, I do not intend to treat you as 
I should another who should fall into my hands, taking from 
him what might please me. On the contrary, I intend that, 
having considered my necessities, you should give me what you 
think is owing. Here is all that is yours : from that window 
you see your horses in the courtyard ; take, therefore, either a 
part or the whole as it shall please you ; from this hour you 
may go or stay, as you will. 

" The Abbot, astonished to hear such generous words from a 
highwayman, being much delighted, felt his anger and disdain 
suddenly dissolve into kindness, and in his heart grew a wish 
to become Ghino's friend. Running to him to embrace him, 
he said : ' I swear to God that to gain the friendship of such a 
one as I take you to be, I might well suffer a deeper injury 
than you have inflicted on me here. Cursed be the evil 



264 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

fortune which has led you to such a damnable life as this ! ' 
Then taking only a few necessities and some of his horses, he 
left the rest to Ghino, and returned to Rome. 

'* Now the Pope had heard of the Abbot's capture, and had 
been much distressed by it. When he saw him he asked him 
if the baths had benefited him ; to which the Abbot smilingly 
answered : ' Holy Father, I found, before arriving at the baths, 
a physician who has thoroughly cured me.' Then he told him 
the story, and urged thereto by his generosity, asked a favour. 
The Pope, imagining that he would ask some other thing, 
freely granted him what he would ask. ' Holy Father,' said 
the Abbot, ' what I wish of you is, that you give a free pardon 
to Ghino di Tacco, my doctor, because, among all estimable 
people I have met, he is the most worthy, and the harm he 
does is to be imputed rather to bad fortune than to an evil 
heart ; change, then, this bad fortune by giving him something 
from which he can live according to his position, and I do not 
doubt but that in a little time he will pay you as he has paid 
me.' Hearing this the Pope, who had a great soul and loved 
valiant men, said he would do it willingly if, indeed, it was as 
he said. With this promise, Ghino came to Court, where the 
Pope, soon convinced of his worth and reconciled to him, gave 
him a great priory with a hospital, and made a knight of him. 
There he remained the friend and servant of Holy Church and 
of the Abbot of Cligni as long as he lived." 

Thus far Boccaccio, but Benvenuto da Imola tells us that the 
Pope created him Cavaliere di S. Giovanni, and that in his 
benefice he maintained splendida vita. As Knight of S. John, 
and the Pope's very good friend, he doubtless found it easier 
to deal with the Sienese Republic. Later Benvenuto tells us he 
retired to Fratta, perhaps his native village, a castello between 
Torrita and Sinalunga in Val di Chiana. However that may 
be, not long after his son Dino became Archbishop of Pisa. 
The Counts of Santa-Fiora, however, would not pardon him 
nor give him peace. As great robbers as himself, it may be 
they resented his success, and especially his peace with the 
Church. One day as he went about in Sinalunga he was set 



RADICOFANI 265 

upon by a number of armed men, Benvenuto tells us, and 
bravely defending himself, but in vain, he fell, pierced by a 
thousand wounds. ^ 

So much for Ghino. But though his ghost truly haunts, 
as I know, those terrible ruins above Radicofani, it is hardly 
that fact which will interest the ordinary traveller who has in 
the sweat of his brow climbed so far in the spring or autumn 
sunshine to see something more than an old ruin, howsoever 
bizarre and wonderful. And he is right. The great thing to 
be had at Radicofani is the view — such a view as I think you 
may find nowhere else in all Tuscany, so wide it is, so majestic, 
and so beautiful. Let us remind ourselves of it. Across the 
deep and bitter ravine to the west rises Mont' Amiata, an 
incredibly great and lovely thing, with Abbadia S. Salvatore just 
visible on the verge of the woods. To the north lies the 
Senese with its shining cities, with Siena itself visible at 
evening on the skirts of the farthest hills. To the east lies the 
splendid range of Cetona with its tiny scattered villages and 
lofty, sweeping outline, shutting out Umbria and her hills. And 
to the south? To the south lies the whole breadth of the 
Patrimony. No one who has once looked southward from 
Radicofani is ever likely to forget what he has seen. It is 
one of the great vistas of the world. It almost gives you 
Rome. Evening is the hour when that world stretched for 
your joy at your feet is most lovely, and strangely enough 
most visible, for in the heat of the day a veil of mist hides it 
from the boldest eyes. But at night, when far and far away 
across the Umbrian hills, like a horn of pallid gold, like a silver 
sickle for some precious harvest, the moon hangs over the 
world, then little by little in her light that world at your feet 
becomes visible, at first never so faintly, as though still hidden 
in some impalpable but lovely veil. To the far right, to the 
south of the Mountain, Castellazzara hangs over the precipice 
of Monte Civitella, Hke the nest of an eagle. Dimly in the 
lovely obscurity S. Casciano rises behind Celle on the flanks 
of Monte Cetona. Somewhere lost in the southern valleys 
Piceno is hidden among the vines, Acquapendente behind 



266 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

her fantastic rocks. They In truth are rather felt than seen, 
only far away Lago di Bolesna shines like a jewel, Monte 
Cimino rises like a ghost beside Monte Venere, eternally 
separated the one from the other by the faint line of hills 
like a bow, against which Montefiascone rises like a lovely 
thought in the unbreakable silence, the papal city of Viterbo 
lies like a white rose. And last of all in the farthest distance 
Monte Soracte, the holy mountain, guards the desert of the 
Campagna and the immortal thing which it has brought forth 
— the City of Rome. 



XXIII 
SARTEANO, CETONA, AND CHIUSI 

THE road from Radicofani for Chiusi runs north-east quite 
round Ghino's stronghold across the upper valley of 
the Orcia, and after passing under the shadow of Monte 
Cetona it crosses that beautiful range of great hills and comes 
once more, though still at some height, into the Chiana 
valley at the quiet and beautiful little town of Sarteano. The 
views all the way, and especially after crossing the shoulder of 
Cetona, are of an extraordinary loveliness. Far away stand 
the hills of Umbria, the great snow-capped mountains of the 
Central Apennines. Nearer, across the Chiana valley on the 
lower skirts of the great bastions that support the central range, 
lie innumerable little shining cities, among them Cortona, 
Castiglione Fiorentino, Passignano, and Magione. Nearer 
still, on their separate hill-tops, where they stand like statues 
on their pedestals, are Montepulciano, Pienza, Chiusi, and 
Citta della Pieve, while on this side the valley at our feet lie 
Sarteano, Cetona, and an endless array of villages. 

One writes down these beautiful names, one repeats them to 
oneself, but when that is done, what has been accomplished ? 
Nothing or very little. Who can describe that world of hill 
and valley so happily peopled with all that is most precious in 
the world ? Who may rightly speak of the sky that covers so 
softly this world in which we may find all our dreams ? Who 
can conjure up its sunshine or express the glory of its colouring, 
its majesty and tenderness ? To write of such a thing is to 

267 



268 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

understand the impotence of words in our dealings with 
Nature or with God. Out of the fullness of the heart the 
mouth speaketh, but in vain to those who have never seen 
the sun, or for whom the sky is always as far off as it is in 
England. 

Sarteano lies in a cup of the hills under an ancient castle 
some five miles from Chiusi, and some fifteen from Radicofani. 
It is a populous little town with two parochial churches, one of 
which, SS. Lorenzo e Apollinare, is the CoUegiata. Sarteano 
has been a fortified place at least since the eleventh century, 
when it was in the power of certain Orvietan Counts, who, 
according to Repetti, came of a branch of the Conti Senesi 
della Berardenga and della Scialenga, so omnipotent, as we 
have seen, between Ascianoand Montepulciano. About 1255 
the Counts called Manenti, who held Sarteano, submitted to 
the Commune of Siena; but in 1264, when Charles of Anjou 
was in Rome, they rebelled and renewed their alliance with the 
Guelfs of Orvieto. Therefore the Sienese sent an expedition 
in the very next year to bring them to reason. 

Nevertheless the Counts continued to hold Sarteano till the 
middle of the fourteenth century as feudatories of Siena, for 
they were a useful and a warlike race. They seem to have 
been ready to serve any master for the sake of war, and their 
almost artistic joy in the work they could do so well seems to 
be shown in the fact that they fought equally for Siena and for 
Florence. Such was the Count Manenti who, in 1292, with 
the title of Contestabile, led an army against Pisa for the 
Florentines, and such were his descendants who in 1325 
officered the Guelf League in Val di Nievole against Cas- 
truccio Castracane, the greatest soldier of his time. Their 
valour seems to have filled even their doubtful descendants, 
for in 1339 we see a certain Neroccio, a natural son of one of 
the Counts, fighting in the Florentine army, and in 1344 a 
certain Count Manfredi held Pescia for the same Republic, 
while as late as 1353 one of them at the head of a Florentine 
expedition seized the territory of Cetona. They were a race 
of soldiers, and that they lasted so well might seem to prove 



SARTEANO, CETONA, AND CHIUSI 269 

that their rule in Sarteano had some virtue, and what we know 
of the liberties of the town confirms us in coming to such a 
conclusion. Indeed, in the fourteenth century little but the 
name of Conte seems to have remained to them of their ancient 
power. It seems, then, that already in the fourteenth century 
the people of Sarteano were free : they appear to have remained 
so till, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, by a conven- 
tion of that year, they came into the dominion of Siena : 
thereafter they paid tribute, and their story does not differ 
much from that of Lucignano. After 1401 they were com- 
pelled to elect a Sienese as Potesta every six months, and to 
pay him a salary of a thousand lire^ as well as, among other 
things, to deliver up their castello to a castellano^ elected every 
six months by the Commune of Siena, to make peace or war 
as that Commune should direct, and to hold as friends or 
enemies those whom she should choose, to offer Siena in the 
month of August a palio of scarlet of the value of 25 gold 
florins, and this for twelve years. The convention was 
renewed all through the fifteenth century, and thus Sarteano 
came into the Sienese dominion, as perhaps its most for- 
midable fortress on the south-east frontier. In 1556 its fate 
was the same as that of its sisters, and its history closes when 
it entered the dominion of Cosimo I. 

Charming as Sarteano is, with its old fortress and quiet 
country churches, it is to be loved not alone for its outward 
beauty, but for the treasures it hides. In the Villa Bargagli 
is a collection of Etruscan antiquities of no great fame or 
interest. In the Collegiata, rebuilt, alas! in 1723, there is a 
fine picture of the Annunciation by Pacchia, while in S. Mar- 
tino there is another picture of the same subject painted in 
1546. In the Misericordia Church, too, there is a work by 
Benvenuto di Giovanni, a picture representing S. Bernardino 
of Siena and S. Antony of Padua. Nor is this all, for Signor 
Sestilio Barni has a fine altarpiece by Andrea di Niccolb, a 
pupil perhaps of Matteo di Giovanni, an artist, too, who came 
under the influence of Neroccio. There we see the Madonna 
and Child with S. Roch and S. Sebastian, and a predella of 



270 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

small scenes Trom the life of S. Roch, who was especially 
venerated in Sarteano. 

Sarteano lies but five miles from Chiusi by the direct road, 
but it is pleasanter to proceed thither, I think, by Cetona. 
The way lies south and east across the hills from Sarteano 
— a distance of not more than three miles. Almost at our 
setting out we pass the Madonna di Belriguardo, an ancient 
public oratory of Sarteano, and then, descending the hills, we 
presently come into the little town of Cetona, looking directly 
across the wide Chiana valley to Citta della Pieve in Umbria. 

Cetona is a languid little place lying in the shadow of its 
great ruined castello, which crowns one of the last eastern 
spurs of the Cetona range. And just as at Lucignano we 
found a fortress of the Sienese guarding her confines where 
they ran with those of Arezzo and Florence, just as Radicofani 
was the last Rocca of Siena southward on the range of the 
Patrimony, so here at Cetona we see the last castle of Siena 
on the confines of the territory of Orvieto and Perugia, that 
made a part of the Papal States. Its business, according to 
Siena, was to hold the frontier on her behalf. This can never 
have been a very comfortable business in the thirteenth, four- 
teenth, and fifteenth centuries, when war was always about to 
break out, and raids and private expeditions were of daily 
occurrence. All these little frontier towns were continually 
changing hands, and we may believe that their policy was 
perforce something like that of the rival condottieri^ who pre- 
ferred war in much the same way as a learned man might 
prefer philosophy, and often with much less disastrous results. 

Cetona must have known a hundred masters. What she 
was originally, how she rose, who called her into being, we 
know not. Many have given her an origin as ancient as that 
of Chiusi, and they may be right, but we have nothing to 
support any such theory. Indeed, we are quite ignorant of 
Cetona till, in 1264, by a convention between Siena and the 
troops of Manfred, in the command of Conte Guido Morello, 
his vicar in Tuscany against the Orvietans, the Conte was 
given leave to recover among other places both Sarteano and 



SARTEANO, CETONA, AND CHIUSI 271 

Cetona. That might seem to suggest that the Sienese had 
already certain rights in Cetona which might be "recovered "; 
but who can decide at this time of day as to the grounds of 
the claims of Siena over this small place ? 

It would be tedious to go into all the changes of fortune 
Cetona experienced during the next two centuries ; sometimes 
she was held by the Sienese, sometimes by the Orvietans. 
She lay at the mercy of Albornoz in 1365, and in 1367 gave 
herself freely to Urban V, but in 1375 she was handed over 
to the Emperor, who gave her in feud to the Counts of 
Cervara, who held her till 14 18, when Braccio da Montone, 
after defeating Carlo Malatesta of Rimini, general of the 
Perugians, took Cetona from them, destroyed the castello^ and 
made the place over to the Sienese. Then, in 1455, came 
Jacopo di Niccolb Piccinino, the condoitiere and adventurer, 
who took the place, and set up there Puccino de' Puccini of 
Perugia, but the Sienese threw him out, and in 1458 rebuilt 
the fortress. 

Cetona had felt every great movement of the fourteenth 
and fifteenth centuries, nor did she escape the disasters 
of the sixteenth. Both Duke Valentino, Cesare Borgia, and 
Francesco Maria della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, took her and 
departed on their way, the one to turn out Pandolfo Petrucci, 
the other to reinstate the fuorisciti in Siena. At that time the 
Cetonesi seem to have been faithful to Siena, nor was the 
Republic ungrateful. Thus encouraged, they proved to be 
the last town to forgo allegiance when the government of the 
Republic retired to Montalcino. They were overcome, how- 
ever, by Mario Sforza of Santa Flora in January, 1556, and 
forced to enter the dominion of Cosimo I. 

The ancient rocca of Cetona, which has thus seen the whole 
history of Italy clang by up and down the valley of the Chiana, 
was in 1650 restored and made habitable, and has for long 
been in the possession of the Terrosi family, who have turned 
it into a delicious casino^ whence one overlooks the whole Val 
di Chiana. The town or village beneath it is still surrounded 
by an old wall with three gates, one of them leading to the 



272 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

rocca. The finest building in the town, apart from the churches, 
is the Palazzo Terrosi, with its delightful boschetti and gardens 
and grotto of stalactites, which, by the kindness of the family, 
one is permitted to visit, together with a small collection of 
antiquities brought together there. None of the churches — 
the CoUegiata, just within the castello, S. Angelo the Pieve, 
S. Maria in Belvedere — has much to show us; but in S. 
Francesco, just outside the town, there are three Sienese pic- 
tures of some importance. Over the high altar there is a small 
picture of the Madonna by Sano di Pietro, and in the chapel 
of S. Egidio a Madonna and two Saints by Matteo Balducci, 
the pupil of Pacchiarotto and the imitator of Pintoricchio, 
while in the cloister there is a fresco of the Madonna enthroned 
by Benvenuto di Giovanni. 

The road from Cetona to Chiusi is as pleasant as any in the 
world, descending first into the little valley of the Astrone, 
and then dividing into two ways, either of which will bring you 
at last to Chiusi, for the way to the right turns into the great 
valley, and you soon find yourself at Chiusi station, whence it 
is a walk of half an hour up into the city ; the other crosses 
the hills by Poggio Montotto, and brings you out at last on the 
direct way from Sarteano, not a mile outside the city. It is 
this latter way I prefer, because it affords the better view ; by 
it, it is, I suppose, six miles from Cetona to Chiusi. 

Nothing, I suppose, can well be more venerable than 
Chiusi, and as for the beautiful view you see thence, men 
must have loved it for some thousands of years. To the right 
rises Monte Cetona, like a vast pyramid shining in the sun, 
while to the left Citta della Pieve hides among the woods of 
its dear hills. Between, the valley opens north and south, the 
wide and fruitful valley of the Chiana, through a sweet and 
quiet world of villages and homesteads and sweetly breaking 
hills. How softly the evening falls there, and how wonderful 
is the light over hill and valley and mountain ! It is easy to tell 
one is here on the verge of Umbria ; one has but to go down 
into the valley, and in something less than a hundred yards 
one finds oneself in that mysterious country, "dim with 



SAKTEANO, CETONA, AND CHIUSI 273 

valleys," which Perugino, the landscape painter, has shown 
us in all his pictures. Well, Chiusi is, and has always been, 
the Mecca of the archaeologist, yet I am sure he never found 
anything there half so lovely, half so consoling as that view 
over the valley and the light on the far hills. And whatever 
Chiusi may be or may come to be for the world, a vast 
Etruscan Necropolis or a huge factory town and railway 
terminus — God knows what they may make of her in the 
years to come — for me she will ever remain what she was 
to me in those two brief days in which I sat like a lord 
in the Leone d' Oro, and, like my fathers before me, 
washed my good goat's cheese down with Montepulciano 
and smoked sigari on the doorstep as I watched the 
evening procession of the maidens and the beautiful ladies, 
who there, as in every other Italian town and village, take 
their constitutional after the work of the day. Chiusi is 
merely the best and loveliest of places in Tuscany because you 
may look from it as from a window on Umbria. It is a place 
from which you may overlook grey olives and green vineyards 
and golden corn,and beyond a fairy lake, and beyond the hills 
and then the mountains. I could watch just that for ever. I 
did my best. They came to me and spoke of Etruscan tombs, 
they told me of an Etruscan Museum. They were right, there 
are Etruscan tombs at Chiusi — even Herr Baedeker says some- 
thing of them — there is an Etruscan Museum — Herr Baedeker 
— ah, these Germans ! — calls it interesting. But what have I 
to do with the Etruscans or the Etruscans with me? My 
world, the world I love, lies before my eyes. May I not look 
at it and enjoy it a little before it is taken away from me or 
spoiled for ever by some fool who wants to make money and 
benefit his country, as they say, by making it miserable and 
wretched ? 

By the Holy Thorn of Glastonbury — that, too, they almost 
destroyed — what are the Etruscans to me, or, I might ask, 
Signora the reader, to you either for that matter ? What do 
you know about them ? What is there to know ? Can you 
read their language that you should be so eager for inscrip- 



274 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

tions, or are you a body-snatcher or an antiquarian that you 
should make so much of a few tombs ? All there is to know 
about Chiusi in the way of history, in the way of Etruscan 
history, can be put into half a dozen or so fine words — 

" Lars Porsenna of Clusium, 
By the Nine Gods he swore 
That the great house of Tarquin 
Should suffer wrong no more." * 

I have known that ever since I knew anything. Why all 
this pother about it now ? This is the place — yes. Now let 
us return to the world, now that the evening . . . 

If the ivory car of Lars Porsenna were in the Museum, or, 
better still, in his tomb, I would certainly go to see it. Perhaps 
you did not know that he had an ivory car ? Oh, but he had, 
and he took it to Rome too. Doubtless it was utterly lost in 

the rout. 

" Fast by the royal standard, 
O'erlooking all the war, 
Lars Porsenna of Clusium 
Sat in his ivory car." 

Now the disastrous action of Lars Porsenna on behalf of 
Tarquinius Superbus, in the course of which false Sextus 
hoped to see brave Horatius drowned in the Tiber and was 
bitterly disappointed, is all the Etruscan history I know or 
ever want to know. All the rest is hearsay, and dull hearsay 
at that. I know nothing of the Etruscan League, save that it 
was composed of twelve cities. Get it out of Dennis or the 
guide-book. 

I return to the evening in the valley. To the north-east 
one can see Cortona like some city of marble on the flank of 
those mysterious hills : 

** Through com and vines and flowers, 
From where Cortona lifts to heaven 
Her diadem of towers." 

How absurd that is ! It is always the same if one begins 
listening to any of this Etruscan speculation. It is pure 
* Cf. also ^neid x, 167. 



SABTEANO, CETONA, AND CHIUSI 275 

invention, and so is that. Macaulay must have written of 
Cortona as he wrote the " History of England," without any 
regard for the truth. It was not an age of documents, but one 
expected honesty. Now Macaulay can never have seen Cor- 
tona. Cortona never did and never shall lift to heaven " her 
diadem of towers." She lies on a hill-side with a vast back- 
ground of mountains, that always and from every point of view 
seem to overwhelm and to threaten her. She crouches there 
like a white dove. Not that I mind Macaulay and his absurdi- 
ties. The phrase is a good phrase — the lines are good lines — 
even now, when I have been in Cortona a hundred times, I 
have only to go away and to shut my eyes, and there she is, 
thank God, just as she used to be when I was a child, crown- 
ing the top of an incredible eyrie, and lifting to heaven " her 
diadem of towers." No, Macaulay is nothing to me — for I 
know that he is damned like all the Whigs — especially the 
Whig historians — damned past all hope of redemption. But 
while you reprobate Macaulay in the matter of Cortona, you 
expect me to discourse about Etruscan Clusium. I am not a 
Whig historian. I find invention exceedingly hard on my 
conscience, besides being difficult to do well ; and though for 
no other cause, yet for this I refuse to write descriptions with 
appropriate dates and a good sprinkling of democratic senti- 
ment, (a) of Etruscan history, (/3) of the Etruscan tombs, (y) 
of the works of art, whether Domestic or Religious, in the 
Etruscan Museum. 

But mediaeval Chiusi, if you would study that, if you would 
understand it, you must go to the Cathedral of S. Mustiola, 
the mother-church of the city, which not only commemorates 
a gracious saint but conserves, in so far as they have been 
conserved at all, the ancient memoirs of the Longobard 
rule here. 

And first as to S. Mustiola. Chiusi, if all be true, must 
have been already of immense antiquity when the Roman 
lady Mustiola came during the Aurelian persecution in 275 
to visit the Christian prisoners, as our Lord had ordained. 
Now the governor of Tuscany at that time was Tarcius, and he, 



2;6 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

seeing the merciful lady by chance, and loving her, as he said, 
tried to win her to his bed ; and when she would not for 
anything, he had her beaten to death with a leaden scourge. 
Her tomb, formed out of an ancient column, is still to be seen 
in her cathedral, and on her fes fa, 3 July, it is even yet a mass 
of flowers. 

When such monsters as Tardus were done with, let us hope 
for ever, by and by in God's good time the Goths thundered 
by Chiusi on their way to Rome ; the place, in fact, became a 
sort of Gothic stronghold, and so fit and useful was it as 
a base against the Eternal City that even Totila — who, the 
Italians tell you, destroyed everything — refrained when he 
got Chiusi ; indeed, the walls, so old that they were falling 
from age when the Longobards came, were never thrown down. 

The Longobards established a Dukedom in Chiusi, as they 
did in Spoleto and Benevento, and we find a Duke established 
there in the eighth century, and that lasted till Charlemagne's 
day, disappearing for ever in 776. After that Chiusi was 
ruled by an exercitale, and then by a Count. During these and 
the following centuries Chiusi seems to have enjoyed con- 
siderable prosperity. Her true decadence seems to have 
begun in the eleventh century, when war and continual war 
at last brought famine and pestilence. Then her immediate 
contado and the valley of the Chiana became a pestilential 
swamp, that even till our fathers' time made the whole country 
unhealthy. Something of this we find expressed by Dante, 
who, considering that all must pass away, says : — 

" Se tu riguardi Luni ed Urbisaglia 
Come son ite, e come se ne vanno 
Di retro ad esse Chiusi e Sinigaglia.* ..." 

or as Longfellow has it : — 

*' If Luni thou regard and Urbisaglia, 
How they have passed away and how are passing, 
Chiusi and SinigagUa after them. . . ." 



Paradiso," xvi. 



SAKTEANO, CETONA, AND CHIUSI 277 

No doubt the ruin was notorious, for Chiusi had been 
a city of great splendour with two cathedrals, the superior 
and perhaps the earlier being under the invocation of S. 
Secondiano, the other, of course, under that of S. Mustiola. 
Her contado^ too, had been of very considerable extent. Thus 
what we now call Castiglione del Lago di Trasimeno was, 
before 1197, when it was taken and destroyed by the Aretines, 
known as Castiglione di Chiusi. Then in 12 14 it seems that 
the Perugians were confirmed by Innocent III in jurisdiction 
over that part of her contado which was on their side of the 
Chiana, and which was thereafter called Chiusi di Perugia. 
And when in 1231 the Sienese gained their first victory in 
the contado of Orvieto it was Chiusi who suffered. In 12 18 
the Ghibellines of Arezzo, captained by Farinata degli Uberti, 
occupied the place after the defeat of Campaldino, but in 
the following year, as Villani ^ records, they of Chiusi were 
routed and the Guelf refugees restored. 

It was in the year 1332 that the Perugians first took Chiusi, 
which shortly after was retaken by the Orvietans, who ruled 
there till 1337, when Chiusi regained her liberty. She 
remained free till 1355, when Charles IV established a vicar 
in the city. This rule in some sort lasted till 1380, when 
Siena began to rule there, which she more or less continued 
to do, though constantly deprived of the city, which was sold 
and resold all through the fifteenth century, till, indeed, 
in 1556 she opened her gates to Mario Sforza, Count of 
S. Flora, and with the rest of Tuscany was gathered into 
the dominion of Cosimo I. 

Very fittle remains in Chiusi, apart from the city herself and, 
for those who like them, the Etruscan remains, for the traveller 
to see. What there is will be found in the Duomo, a 
modernized building containing many fragments of older 
erections, the nave being upheld by eighteen ancient columns 
of various quality and size. In the loggia in the Piazza are 
many Etruscan and Roman inscriptions ; but in the Cathedral 
itself are several fine pictures and a Missal which should on no 

^ " Cronica," vii, 136. 



2/8 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

account be missed. In the left transept is a fine picture of 
the Nativity by Fungai, and in the sacristy a picture of the 
Madonna and Child with Saints by Baldassare Peruzzi. Here, 
too, is a beautiful illuminated Missal by Sano di Pietro. 

This is really all there is to be had in the way of works 
of art in Chiusi, whose chief interest after all is in her Etruscan 
remains, in those vast cavernous tombs that honeycomb her 
hill-side, and in the small Museum full of vases, Mxns^figurini^ 
and tear-bottles, which are constantly being found. 

As you wander through the place, quiet enough at any time 
of year, through the great empty piazza at the top of the town 
from which there is so fine a view, past the beautiful red 
brick Church of S. Francesco, it is less of Chiusi than of the 
beautiful world in which she stands, scarcely more than an 
ancient graveyard, that you think. History here is but a tale 
that is told. The reality is not there but in the landscape, 
where to the west Cetona stands like some vast crater with 
Mont' Amiata looking over its shoulder; or where eastward 
lie the lakes like precious jewels, which only the passing 
clouds may trouble as they sail up from the sea to the great 
mountains of the Apennines, the hills of Umbria. Beside 
that marvellous and eternal beauty no trumpery tale of a dead 
civilization, of which we know nothing and can know nothing, 
is worth consideration for a moment. For here are the sun 
and the wind and the soft sky : let us lift up our hearts and 
rejoice in them, for too soon we also shall be of as little 
account as the Etruscans. 



XXIV 
CORTONA AND ST. MARGARET 

THE easiest way to reach Cortona from Chiusi is, of 
course, by train, changing, if need be, at Terontola. By 
this route you pass quite along the western shore of Lago 
Trasimeno, past Castiglione del Lago in Umbria, coming into 
Tuscany again at Borghetto at the head of the lake. It is a 
journey full of beauty and delight, and may be done as well 
afoot as in the train. But for me that is not the way to 
Cortona, nor will it, in fact, reveal to you the true character 
of the country which lies between Chiusi and Cortona, the 
Val di Chiana with its great island of hills, the Poggi di 
Petrignano. In order to understand this strange and beau- 
tiful valley, so profoundly Umbrian in character, it is necessary 
to take the road, straight almost as a ruled line, across the 
narrow valley of the Tresa east of Chiusi so far as Strada, 
where it suddenly turns northward and winds slowly over the 
Poggi di Petrignano through Vaiano and Gioiella, through 
Pozzuolo, S. Margherita, Petrignano, Centoia, and Selva, 
where it descends into the Chiana and makes straight across 
the wide and fertile valley for that wonderful rock-bound 
citadel which is Cortona. 

This road has many advantages for the traveller. It passes, 
for instance, close by Laviano, the birthplace (the house is 
still visible) of S. Margarita of Cortona, of whom I shall have 
something to say presently, and it affords a view of the whole 
country round about, thus revealing at once its character. 
Something certainly must be said of this valley, which was of 

279 



280 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

old a mere swamp, yet which the rival cities were so eager to 
dominate and to possess. Through it anciently in a multitude 
of little streams the river Chiana flowed, till it lost itself 
in the Paglia and so flowed into Tiber. Its condition 
during the period from the eleventh to the fourteenth century 
gradually grew worse; small lakes and vast swamps were 
formed by the ruin of the Etruscan and Roman system of 
drainage, which had rendered the river to some extent 
navigable probably as far as Chiusi, and the whole valley 
became a pestilential wilderness breathing malaria and death. 
Dante, indeed, speaks of it as a hospital in the summer-time,^ 
and Fazio degli Uberti tells us : — 

" Quivi son volti pallidi e confusi 

Perche 1' aere e la Chiana e lor nimica 
Sicche gli fanno idropici e rinfusi." 

And Pulci in his " Morgante " uses its name to express fever- 
stricken and pestilential bogs. The district that had thus become 
a synonym for a dreary swamp is now one of the most fertile 
in Europe, and indeed not less healthy than the heights which 
surround it. This wonderful change, which took more than 
two centuries to effect, was achieved at last by filling up the 
swamp with " alluvial deposits " and by a great system of 
drainage whereby the Chiana, which originally flowed into 
the Tiber, was diverted into the Arno. The attempt had 
been planned by the Romans, who, according to Tacitus, only 
gave it up at the entreaty of the Florentines, who feared their 
lands would be flooded. It is to the Grand-Dukes of Tuscany 
we really owe the great undertaking which has turned a swamp 
that was a valuable hunting-ground, with a great hunting-lodge 
at Bettolle, into this fertile district of corn and wine and oil, 
where the great white oxen now draw the plough and the girls 
sing in the vineyards, and the good land yields a golden 
harvest. In these days when there are so few things left that 
have escaped the universal deluge of democratic barbarism, 
when even England seems in danger of falling into the hands 

' Cf. '' Inferno," xxix, 45, and see note 11, p. 333 infra. 



€i 




OF 



CORTONA AND ST. MARGARET 281 

of the mob, it is well to remind ourselves — and especially here 
in Italy, where too much is forgotten — that it was to the best 
and wisest rule that Tuscany has yet seen and not to modern 
Italy that she owes the riches of this valley and the happiness 
of its inhabitants. Let us hope that the modern kingdom 
may be able so far to follow its predecessors as to achieve in 
the Maremma what they accompHshed here, and so for one 
good thing at least earn our gratitude and justify its existence. 

That valley, so dreadful in the Middle Age, cannot, one 
might think, have been so in ancient times, or certainly the 
Romans would have dealt with it. Moreover, men do not as 
a rule choose a swamp to fight in, and it was here, in the valley 
under Cortona and along the northern side of the lake Piano 
Sanguinoso — from the blood that was spilt there — that Han- 
nibal lured the Romans out of Arezzo to follow him, and there 
he took them in ambush, and after three hours of fighting 
utterly destroyed their army and killed their general, Flaminius. 
This on 21 June, B.C. 217. 

It is, however, on something far more ancient and more 
venerable that we look when, having crossed the valley, we 
enter Camucia and stand at the foot of the great hills on 
whose flank Cortona lies. 

In one of those grand old-fashioned periods in which 
Dennis was wont to address his readers in the more solemn 
moments of his exploration of Etruria, on the eve of entering 
some once famous city or before discovering to them some extra- 
ordinary marvel of his beloved Etruscan art, he introduces us 
to Cortona. " Traveller, thou art approaching Cortona ! Dost 
thou reverence age — that fullness of years which, as Pliny says, 
* in man is venerable, in cities sacred ' ? Here is that which 
demands thy reverence. Here is a city, compared to which 
Rome is but of yesterday — to which most other cities of 
ancient renown are fresh and green. Thou mayst have wan- 
dered far and wide through Italy — nothing hast thou seen 
more venerable than Cortona. Ere the days of Hector and 
Achilles, ere Troy itself arose — Cortona was. On that bare 
and lofty height whose towered crest holds communion with 



282 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

the cloud, dwelt the heaven-born Dardanus, ere he left Italy 
to found the Trojan race; and on that mount reigned his 
father Corythus, and there he was laid in the tomb. Such 
is the ancient legend, and wherefore gainsay it ? Away with 
doubts ! — pay thy full tribute of homage — acceptam pane movere 
fidem I Hast thou respect to fallen greatness ? Yon solemn 
city was once the proudest and mightiest in the land, the 
metropolis of Etruria and now — but enter its gates and look 
around." 

Dear Dennis, companion of my boyhood, I have done thy 
bidding, and if I have forsaken what thou hast loved so 
eloquently for things that were hidden from thee — forgive 
me, master. It was thy hand led me thither, and in thy 
name I went. Also I did thy bidding. I " looked around," 
and it seemed to me that Corythus was nothing to me, but 
Frate Elias very much, and as for heaven-born Dardanus, what 
was he after all beside S. Margaret, Sister of the Seraphs, Lily 
of the Fields ? 

But before we can come either at heaven-born Dardanus 
or at S. Margaret it is necessary, as Dennis says, to come to 
Cortona, to enter its gates, and this is even to-day not so easy 
a business as one might suppose. 

From the railway station you may drive by the road that 
climbs the hill-side to Cortona in half an hour, but if you be 
young enough and keen enough, you will go by the pathway 
among the boulders, over the stones, straight up the hill-side 
to the city, and by so doing realize what an unapproachable 
fortress Cortona is and on what tremendous ruins she is 
founded. But even when you have reached the Porta S. 
Domenico and found your inn, which to-day is good enough 
for any one, you have still to see Cortona, and that entails 
climbing everywhere, and especially a long climb to the upper 
town, for Cortona hangs, as it were, down the mountain-side 
from the star which is YiQi fortezza. 

Nothing, I think, in all Tuscany will impress and astonish 
the traveller more than his walks up and down Cortona 
through that maze of narrow precipitous streets between 



CORTONA AND ST. MARGARET 283 

the sombre palaces founded on the naked rock, and cliffs 
and boulders that a hundred generations have been powerless 
to wear away. Cortona is indeed, as Dennis says, the most 
ancient of cities, nor is there any city in Italy that has kept 
so mediaeval an aspect. 

You feel her ancientness at once when you come, even at 
Porta S. Domenico, within sight of her walls, for though they 
be Mediaeval or Renaissance they are based on the most 
ancient of all, and often, as about Porta Colonia, they have 
proved so lasting that the Middle Age and the Renaissance 
have passed it by untouched, and we see it as it was three 
thousand years or more ago. Only at the highest part of the 
town the old wall has disappeared that \)i\Q fortezza might there 
hold and be included in the city ; yet it is just there, too, at 
Terra Pozza, outside the fortress, you come upon a huge frag- 
ment of the old wall again, 120 feet in length, composed of 
enormous blocks of sandstone held together by weight and 
without cement or mortar. Here is something as formidably 
old as anything at Volterra or Fiesole, something that the 
Umbri may have built before the Pelasgi took Cortona, to be 
deprived in their turn by the Etruscans. 

It will thus be seen that Cortona has much to offer us, a 
wall of immense antiquity, streets narrow and precipitous, 
palaces and buildings of the Middle Age. Happily, too, 
she possesses many of those more human works which smile 
at us from the early Renaissance. 

Just without the Porta S. Domenico, in the delightful piazza 
there, stands a church under the protection of that Saint, a 
building of the fifteenth century, and within, over the altar 
on the right, is a Madonna and Saints with the Bishop 
Serninio, for whom it was painted in 15 15 by the great man 
Cortona bred for Italy — Luca Signorelli. It is one of his last 
pictures, now, unhappily, in very bad condition. The Madonna, 
in a beautiful red robe and green mantle, is enthroned with 
her little Son, her feet resting on the heads of Cherubim, an 
Angel on either side, while below stand S. Domenico and 
S. Peter Martyr. 



284 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

The work of Signorelli's pupil, Bartolommeo della Gatta, 
stands over the high altar of this church, an Assumption of 
the Virgin — with two kneeling Saints by some lesser hand. 
But Cortona, which gave birth to Luca Signorelli, was the 
refuge not only of the Frate Elias and of S. Margaret, 
but of a painter too, and one of the greatest — Fra Angelico. 
He came here in 1407, when schism proclaimed Alexander V 
Pope, and the friars of S. Domenico of Fiesole, rather than 
acknowledge this antipope, fled away, some to Foligno and 
some to Cortona. Among them was a novice, Fra Giovanni, 
whom we call for love Fra Angelico. 

And here in S. Domenico of Cortona, as it happens, he 
painted several glorious works, two of which, happily still 
remaining to us, are now preserved in the church of the Gesu 
here in Cortona, and one of them is certainly among the love- 
liest of his paintings. Of all he did at S. Domenico, in the 
church that remains, in the convent where he passed his novi- 
tiate,^ which has been destroyed, only one is left there for us, 
the lunette over the doorway, a half-ruined fresco of the 
Madonna and Child with Saints. 

From S. Domenico, within the gate the Via Nazionale leads 
straight to the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele before the Palazzo 
del Municipio. Thence the Via Guelfa runs to the left past 
a magnificent palace of the sixteenth century to the church 
of S. Agostino, where there is an altarpiece of the Madonna 
and Child with Saints by Pietro da Cortona, a native painter 
of no very great talent. Turning to the right from the Piazza 
Vittorio Emanuele we soon come to the Piazza Signorelli 
and the fine Palazzo Pretorio with its little Museum of 
Etruscan antiquities — urns, vases, inscriptions, and so forth. 
Thence the Via Casali descends to the Duomo of S. Mary. 

Built by Giulio da Sangallo, as it is said, in the end of the 

^ Mr. Langton Douglas has discovered that S. Antonino with certain of 
the younger friars went from Fiesole, not to Foligno, as has been sup- 
posed, but to Cortona, and it seems probable that Fra Angelico was among 
these younger brethren. See L. Douglas, "Fra Angelico" (Bell, 1900), 
pp. 27, 28. 



CORTONA AND ST. MARGARET 285 

fifteenth century, the Duomo was unhappily altered in the 
eighteenth century, and has lost much of its beauty. It 
contains, however, four works by Signorelli, all unhappily 
late works and none of them in very good preservation, as 
well as a fine altarpiece of the Madonna and Angels by Pietro 
Lorenzetti. Signorelli's works are all in the choir ; they con- 
sist of a Deposition with predella^ painted in 1502 ; the Com- 
munion of the Apostles, painted in 1512; and two pictures 
which are his only in part, an Immaculate Conception and 
an Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. The most important 
of these works is the first ; it was not painted for the Duomo, 
however, but for S. Margarita. The fame of this picture, and 
it was very famous, owes everything to Vasari, who, noting the 
realism of the dead Christ, spread the legend he had heard 
that Signorelli painted it from the dead body of his own son. 
However this may be, and Vasari as a little lad once met 
Signorelli, who was his kinsman, we know that when the great 
painter lost his son he would not part with him until he had 
made a drawing of the young body, pathetic and beautiful, so 
that he might remind himself every day of a thing so frail 
which he had found so precious. 

Opposite the Duomo is the Church of II Gesi^, the bap- 
tistery built in T505, and here, in fact, are preserved the great 
treasures of Cortona. 

The finest of these is the exquisite Annunciation from 
S. Domenico, where under a delicate loggia just without 
the house at sunset in the cool of the day Madonna has 
been reading, when suddenly over the flowers Gabriel has 
come to her with his Ave Gratia Plena, and she has crossed 
her white hands on her bosom, and, the book still open on her 
knee, has leaned a little breathlessly forward as though to 
escape. And indeed as the angel has said, the Lord is with 
her, the Dove hovers sweetly over her bright head, and God 
the Father Himself overhears His own message passing down 
under the arches. In the background, as though to show us 
quite clearly what is happening, we see as in a vision our first 
parents expelled from Paradise, that Eden to which Mary is 



286 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

about to win for us admission again. The predella shows 
us scenes from the Virgin's life, and one scene, probably 
a substitution, of the life of S. Dominic. 

The other work by Fra Angelico here also comes from 
S. Domenico. It is a triptych of the Madonna enthroned 
with her Divine Son between S. John Baptist, a magnificent 
figure, S. John Evangelist, S. Mary Magdalen, and S. Mark. 
Four guardian angels stand behind with tributes of flowers. 
In the pinnacles are our Lord crucified, the Blessed Virgin 
and S. John grieving, and in the tondi at the base is the 
Annunciation. In the predella are scenes from the life of 
S. Dominic. 

Beside these two magnificent works hangs a picture of the 
Madonna and four Saints by Signorelli, a late and not very 
charming picture. Close by, however, is something more 
delightful, a polyptych by Sassetta, in which we see the 
Madonna and Child enthroned with the attendant angels 
in the midst, and on one side S. Nicholas of Bari and 
S. Michael, and on the other S. John Baptist and S. Mar- 
garet. Above in two tondi is the Annunciation. This is not 
perhaps one of Sassetta's greatest or most charming works, 
but the S. Michael is very stately, and the beauty and unction 
of the S. Margaret cannot be denied. 

From the Baptistery we make our way by Via Dardano to 
the Porta Colonia, where the view northward and east is 
fierce, desolate, and terrible, and where the Etruscan wall 
still guards the city. Then returning through the city to 
Piazza Vittorio Emanuele we set out for the fortezza, taking 
the churches of S. Niccolb and S. Margarita on our way. 

The Church of S. Niccolb contains two beautiful things, 
a double altarpiece of the Madonna and Child with Saints, 
with a dead Christ upheld by Angels, on the reverse, by 
Signorelli, and a ruined fresco of a Madonna and Saints 
on the left wall by the same painter. The altarpiece is of 
a rare beauty and originality, an important painting of the 
master's. The dead Christ half lies on the tomb, upheld 
by an Archangel, while three others stand by in grief. Before 




r.-iLi^v 



CORTONA AND ST. MARGARET 287 

Him kneel S. Jerome, and on the other side S. Francis and 
three other Saints. Nothing could be finer and more original 
than this picture. The four archangels are very noble figures, 
and have much in common with Signorelli's work at Orvieto, 
while the S. Jerome is splendidly dramatic. The only figure 
that is disappointing is the dead Christ, which somehow in 
its over-expressive realism fails both in beauty and effect, and 
if we contrast it for a moment, as we cannot fail to do, with 
the divine and pitiful figure of the great archangel who so 
tenderly supports it, we are convinced at once of its failure. 
The Madonna and Saints on the reverse is not less fine. 
There we see our Lady enthroned with her little Son about 
to bless us between S. Peter and S. Paul. 

From S. Niccolo it is still a long climb by a way cut out of 
the rock up to S. Margarita, but no one, I think, can afford 
to miss going there, for though the church be modern the 
view thence is magnificent, and then it is there we shall find 
the shrine of S. Margaret, surely one of the holiest places in 
Tuscany, the tomb of one of the most human of Saints, a true 
daughter of S. Francis. And after visiting that grave and 
gazing half in dread, half in tears on the " still incorrupt " 
body of one who was so beautiful that, as her history 
tells us, she was called Lily of the Valleys, we continue on 
our way up to the fortezza, where all the world seems to lie 
at our feet, where Cetona and Mont' Amiata guard the 
western horizon and the great valley of the Chiana stretches 
out for ever, dotted with villages and pleasant with vineyards 
and corn. 

Somewhere among those island hills that lie in the great 
plain between us and Montepulciano, at the little village of 
Laviano, S. Margaret was born in the year 1247.^ Her father 
was a husbandman, and of her mother we only know that she 
died when Margaret was but seven years old. Indeed, all 
that the child seems able to remember of her mother was her 

' An excellent Life of S. Margaret of Cortona, together with a trans- 
lation of the essential parts of her legend, has been published by Father 
Cuthbert, O.F.C., under title "A Tuscan Penitent" (Burns and Gates). 



288 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

lovely humility, so that she would pray to our Lord Christ, 
" O Lord Jesu, I pray Thee for the safety of all for whom 
Thou wouldst have me to pray." 

Margaret's misfortunes began when she was but nine years 
old, for then her father took a new wife who neither loved her 
nor gave her any care, but indeed seems to have treated her 
with indifference, if not with harshness. Now for Margaret 
one thing was necessary above any other — to be loved. We 
can picture her miserable childhood, an alien in her father's 
house, unwanted, and even looked on with jealousy, for as she 
grew older her beauty astonished all who looked on her. 
Then when she was about seventeen a marvellous thing, as it 
must have seemed to her, befell her. Till now her road had 
been hard and bitter enough, not to be sweetened with tears ; 
suddenly the world was full of flowers. She was beloved. 
That she should give her love in return was just a matter of 
course. The suitor who came thus like a ray of spring 
sunshine into her life was a young knight from Montepulciano. 
She never told his name ; maybe even in the light of what 
happened later it seemed too precious to tell to any one but 
God, for that she gave him her whole heart we may be sure. 
This youth, then, came to court her, probably secretly, and 
continually unsatisfied, besought her presently to flee from 
her unhappiness to his happiness, to go with him to his 
home in the city, promising her love, admiration, joy, and 
the whole world if she would come. He also promised her 
marriage. 

So little Margaret, white as the lilies by whose name she 
is called, doubting nothing possibly and certainly loving all, 
crept out of her father's house in the night and fled away 
across the dreary marshes, nearly drowned with her lover on 
the way, for the Chiana was in flood, till they came to the 
great hill country and the pleasant, smiling, seductive city of 
Montepulciano. And there with much joy she lived with him 
she loved for nine years : only he forgot to marry her. No 
doubt he was too busy with her in his arms ; for we read that 
he gave her all her heart's desire, denying her only this one 



CORTONA AND ST. MARGARET 289 

thing, that he should call her wife. Among other things he 
gave her was a little son. Then Margaret seems to have been 
ashamed : yet only in her heart, for she was used to un- 
happiness, and that happiness so great as that she had should 
be complete may well have seemed impossible. Her neigh- 
bours found her as lovely as ever, as gay, as witty, and as full 
of the desire of joy. One of them seems to have hinted to 
her one day that she should look to her soul; but she 
answered gaily and with spirit that one should have no fear 
for her, for she would yet be among the Saints, and the 
whole world should come a pilgrim to her shrine, with 
staff and scrip and leathern bottle. Yet this sweet lady, so 
cruelly and so sweetly wronged, ever compassioned the poor, 
was pitiful of the needy and friends with the outcast, and, like 
the flowers that cannot be smutched, she gladdened the eyes 
of all who beheld her. Nor do I believe her heart was very 
sorrowful. She loved, she was beloved. Was not that 
enough ? 

So she lived, so she met life, so she communed with her 
heart and went merrily, a new kiss every morning on her 
mouth. Till one summer evening, as she sat singing at 
the window awaiting her man's return, his hound came home 
without him and would do nothing but whine and run to and 
fro between her and the doorway. Then, suddenly cold at the 
heart, she followed him. And the brute led her to a lonely 
place not far from the road where was a wood, and there lay 
he who was her all — mangled and dead. 

When she had kissed him and said many prayers for his 
soul, accusing herself and her beauty for his sin, she returned 
home with them who bore the body to her house. From that 
moment she was a changed woman. Her heart was broken, 
and all that had once been so precious seemed now nothing 
worth, since she had lost the best of all. Her actions and 
whole attitude towards life at this time prove her great love. 
She accused herself, her beauty, her love to save her lover. 
She judged herself more harshly than even our prudish piety 
is able to do, and from that moment she determined to expiate 



290 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

her lover's sin and her own by a life wholly devoted to God. 
She resolved on bitter austerities, on humiliations past belief, 
on absolute poverty and semi-starvation. First of all she 
returned to her lover's family all he had given her, save some 
trinkets that were too precious to be given to any but the 
poor; these she distributed among such as were in distress, 
for they were her brethren and sisters. Then she resolved to 
go back to her father's house and to suffer all things with joy. 
With scarce enough to clothe her, she set out with her little 
son, and when she came to the door she knocked for 
admittance timidly, like a beggar, and indeed without hope. 
Yet her father would have received her gladly, but he could 
not answer for his wife : the married woman turned her out, 
drove her from the house. Now here is a marvel which 
we surely must somehow solve. Margaret was a sinner 
doubtless, yet she was a sister of the poor who are Christ's 
brethren; her stepmother was wedded, an honest woman, a 
frequenter of churches, friendly to priests, yet she turned the 
sister of her Lord from the door of her own home, and refused 
her shelter and food, of which she was in need, and this 
though she led a child by the hand. Solve it how you may, 
you that have driven her out of her land. But for me I 
would rather toil for a thousand years and a thousand up the 
steepest rocks of Purgatory with Margaret, yea, I would rather 
burn with her in the whitest fire, than sit in the prim alleys of 
Paradise with such a beast as this stepmother and with them 
who made her what she was, and still persist. 

Something of the tragedy of this time in Margaret's life has 
found its way into the legend which from her own lips Fra 
Giunta took down, and which Father Cuthbert has translated 
so beautifully. For when she was in despair and there was 
no one to protect her, then He who, whether we will or no, is 
always near us, waiting till we need Him, came — ah ! as she 
was to learn, the best, true lover of all — to take her into His 
keeping. He reminds her of this later, when she might hear 
His voice : — 

Kemembery J>overe//a, how, thy tempter being dead, thou 



GORTON A AND ST. MARGARET 291 

didst return to thy father at Laviano, with thy whole being 
filled with sorrow, with thy tears and drawn face, clothed in a 
black robe and utterly ashamed. And thy father, lacking 
fatherly pity and urged on by thy stepmother, did drive thee 
from his home. Not knowing what to do, and being without 
any adviser or helper, thou didst sit down weeping under a 
fig-tree in his garden, and there thou didst seek in Me a 
Guide, a Father, a Spouse and Lord; and with a humble 
heart didst confess thine utter misery of soul and body. 
Then lo ! the serpent of old, seeing thee cast out by thy 
father, sought to his own shame and thy destruction to make 
thy comeliness and youth an inducement to presume upon 
My mercy ; putting it into thy heart that since thou wast now 
cast out thou mightest excusably go on in sin, and that 
wheresoever thou shouldst come or go thou wouldst not 
lack lovers amongst the great ones of the world because of 
thine exceeding beauty." 

That horror was spared her. For as she had called on 
our Lord in her trouble. He heard her ; He delivered her out 
of her distress, bidding her rise up from under the fig-tree and 
go to the Friars of S. Francis in Cortona, and they would 
know what she was to do. Indeed, to whom else, I should 
like to know, could she have so properly appealed as to the 
little son of the dear, great Saint of Umbria — S. Francesco of 
Assisi ? 

Margaret, hearing that voice, did as she was bidden, and 
coming to Cortona, asked of two ladies whom she met the 
way to S. Francesco, but they — their names were Marinaria 
and Raneria, beautiful names, let them be remembered for 
ever — seeing her condition, took her and her little son home, 
and when they were comforted introduced her to the Friars, 
who gave her pity, love, kindness, and good counsel. Thus 
was begun the work of purification, of expiation, which 
endured during the rest of her life. 

Margaret came to Cortona in 1273,^ and she never left the 
city again but once, and that was to go to Montepulciano 
^ On this see Father Cuthbert, op. cit.^ supra, p. 15. 



292 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

publicly to proclaim her sin before the city in the Duomo. 
This Fra Giunta reluctantly gave her leave to do, and truly in 
order to save her from a worse humiliation which she would 
have inflicted on herself : for she desired to go thither naked, 
with a rope round her neck, led by a hired woman proclaiming 
her sin through the streets. 

In Cortona she earned her bread by nursing the sick, and 
presently leaving the house of Marinaria and Raneria, which 
seemed too cosy, she went to live in a little cottage in a 
lonelier place. There she began to live wholly upon alms, 
begging her bread day by day, refusing money, and only 
accepting the refuse from the tables of those who themselves 
can have been scarcely other than poor. They refused to see 
in her a mere beggar, and gave her, in a spirit we have utterly 
lost, more than the refuse, but this she gave to the poor, and 
took for herself and her son only what remained over. Thus, 
though she was hard on her own child, ^ as the result of her 
sin perhaps, she was called the "mother of the poor." 

Thus three years passed away. But though Margaret's 
whole life had suffered a revolution, a purification if you 
will, fundamentally she was the same nature. She had 
always longed for love, for the outward manifestation of it, 
and in her new love of Christ, which had come to her " in that 
passionate way of hers," she desired it also by way of 
assurance. And it was in that Voice which had spoken with 
her in the garden under the fig-tree that she found this, while 
to prove her sincerity to all she entered the Third Order of 
St. Francis. Yet it was the Voice that she lived to hear. 
*'My child," It would say, and ^^Foverella" — poor little one. 
And so began a wonderful interior and mystical life in which 
Christ held familiar conversation with her and discovered to 
her many wonderful mysteries. This is not, I think, the 

* Father Cuthbert tells us that "she told the boy on one occasion that in 
serving the poor she knew she was serving Christ, because she was moved 
by the spirit, whereas in serving him she was not sure but what she was 
obeying the impulse of the flesh." The lad became a Frate, and appears 
to have died a martyr's death. 



CORTONA AND ST. MARGARET 293 

place to discuss the mystical experiences of Margaret. It will 
suffice to refer the reader to the beautiful legend written by 
Fra Giunta, her "unworthy staff," which Father Cuthbert 
has translated with so much sympathy. We return to her life 
of action. For if as a contemplative and ecstatic she was 
great, she was by no means a mere recluse. That tending 
of the sick presently organized itself, her cottage became a 
hospital, and out of it grew the great Spedale of Cortona, the 
Spedale di S. Maria della Misericordia, opened in 1286. The 
Sisters who served it were all, like Margaret, Franciscan Ter- 
tiaries, and the people of Cortona, remembering S. Francis, 
called them le poverelle. 

But even this organization had not exhausted all Margaret's 
power for good. She was the great peacemaker of Tuscany 
at that period. Already in 1277 she had fearlessly warned 
the warlike Bishop of Arezzo, Guglielmo Ubertini Pazzi, to 
amend his ways and cease from strife, and two years later, in 
1279, by her prayers she saved the Cortonesi from invasion. 
Again, in 1289, she warned Bishop Guglielmo, but this time 
he would not hear her, and two days later he fell in battle. 

Yet for all her influence in the great things of this world, it 
was as a comforter, as the mother of her people, as a nurse, 
that she was most beloved. " If a child were sick," says 
Father Cuthbert, " the parents would come to Margaret that 
she might lay her hands upon it and bring back health. 
Those who were strongly tempted to sin would come laying 
bare their temptation, and seeking in her prayers and words 
of counsel the moral strength they lacked. If a mother 
despaired of a son's salvation because of his evil life, she came 
begging Margaret to send him some bread from her table, 
believing that if the son but tasted bread sanctified by 
Margaret's presence he would be converted. ... It was useless 
for Margaret to plead that she was a sinner like themselves, 
and that because of her sins her very touch would soil them. 
The people disbelieved her protestations and believed the 
more in the efficacy of her intervention." 

Yet even she did not escape scandal. Evildoers cast sus- 



294 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

picion upon her relations with Fra Giunta, her confessor, 
and for this cause, much to the regret of the Friar, who looked 
to have her body after death, she removed from her house 
near S. Francesco to the spot under the fortezza where now 
her church stands, but which was then occupied by the ruined 
and deserted Church of S. Basilio. Fra Giunta at the time of 
the scandal, in which the Friars were not blameless, had been 
sent away to Siena. It was, however, in his arms that, seven 
years later, Margaret came to die on 22 February, 1297 ; 
and immediately all Cortona proclaimed her a Saint, but 
she was not formally canonized till May, 1728. 

It is strange that Cortona should have held almost at that 
same time two such different Franciscans as Frate Elias ^ and 
S. Margaret — the one a great statesman who abhorred poverty, 
the other a poor woman who loved it. Elias built here in 
the city a vast palace full of every sort of splendour that later 
became the Vescovado, Margarita built the hospital and restored 
the church which, after being rebuilt, was to bear her name. 
And it is she who is the victor, not he, for all his power and 
wealth and greatness of mind. He is forgotten by all men 
save a few historians, while her name is still familiarly dear 
on the lips of peasants and children, who invoke her, their 
all-powerful friend, as we may hear any day in the fields or the 
byways about her home : — 

*' O Lily of our fields, 
O Violet of humility, 
O little Sister of the Seraphs, 
Ora pro nobis." 



* For a full account of Frate Elias see my ' ' Cities of Umbria "(Methuen, 
3rd edition, 1908), p. 321, et seq. 



XXV 

AREZZO AND BORGO SAN SEPOLCRO 

IT was early morning when I crept out of Cortona by Porta 
S. Agostino down the precipitous way into the valley for 
Castiglione Fiorentino and Arezzo. At II Sodo I found the 
highroad, and by then the sun was over the hills, and I went 
with a will swinging up the valley northward till I came to 
Montecchio, a stronghold of the Tarlati, and there I breakfasted 
among the vines. Then I went on again till just before mid- 
day I found myself under Castiglione Fiorentino, the strongest 
place on this side of the Chiana Valley, an outpost of Arezzo, 
and, while that city held the hills behind it, impregnable. It 
has no history of its own, but it is very well worth a visit, for 
the country about it is noble and picturesque, and the town 
itself, built about its hill-top, is even more completely mediaeval 
than Cortona, whose decadence, according to the chroniclers, 
gave birth to Castiglione, which has generally been held by 
the Aretines or by their masters, the Florentines. 

Nor is Castiglione Fiorentino without attractions in the way 
of pictures. In the Collegiata over the third altar on the right 
is a Madonna and Child with Saints and donor, painted in i486 
by Bartolommeo della Gatta. This altarpiece of some 
splendour originally had a predella^ which is now preserved in 
the sacristy. It represents scenes from the Legend of 
S. Giuliano. Over the altar, on the right of the high altar, 
is a late work by Lorenzo di Credi, a Nativity, which is not 
without charm. 

We come upon the work of Bartolommeo della Gatta again 



296 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

in S. Francesco, in the right transept there, where is a fine 
picture painted in 1487 of S. Francesco receiving the Stigmata. 
But most of the churches in and about CastigHone Fiorentino 
have been robbed of their pictures, which are now gathered 
into the Pinacoteca in the Palazzo del Municipio. There we 
may see what riches they once possessed in the work of Sig- 
norelli, Bartolommeo della Gatta, Giovanni di Paolo, and 
Sellajo. 

By Signorelli is a fresco of the Deposition (11), from the 
Collegia ta, where it once made beautiful the chapel of the 
Blessed Sacrament. It is a very splendid piece of work, 
though it may not compare, of course, with the Cortona master- 
piece. Don Bartolommeo, his pupil, is finely represented here 
by a picture, also from the CoUegiata, in which a woman of 
noble family kneels with a child in her arms before the Arch- 
angel Michael, who is a-trampling on the devil (13). Grotesque 
and affected as the Saint appears, he still reminds us of Sig- 
norelli, but the head of the noble lady is surely Peruginesque. 
A scutcheon at her feet bears the arms of the Visconti, and it 
is said that the lady is Teodora Visconti. A scroll assures us 
that ^^ Laurentia fieri fecit" 

As for Giovanni di Paolo the Sienese, the close follower of 
Sassetta, he is to be seen here almost at his best in two panels 
of the Marriage of S. Catherine (34). These, too, come from 
the CoUegiata. We see the Virgin and Child enthroned, while 
beside them stand S. Catherine, a figure recalling the work of 
Gentile da Fabriano, another female Saint, and S. Michael, the 
last a much injured figure. On the panel of the Virgin and 
Child we read " Opus Johannis de Senis a.d. mlccclvii." 

Sellajo, the pupil of Fra Filippo Lippi, is seen here in a 
curious picture called the Pool of Bethesda (14). 

I left Castiglione Fiorentino again at dawn, and as I went 
on my way, when the light grew stronger I saw that the 
character of the landscape had changed. Instead of the 
country of wild hills and deep valleys, of rocks and bare 
mountain-side, so Umbrian in character, that surrounds 
Cortona, I found myself in a land of green, rolling meadows, 




AREZZO : PIAZZA VASARI 



\> 



JBR^aJft^ 



OF THE 



UIMIVERSITY 

OF 



AREZZO AND BORGO SAN SEPOLCRO 297 

of low, fertile hills full of contentment, almost English in its 
placidity. And all that day it was the same. I had come 
nto a new land — the land of the Aretines, as I found when 
at dusk I entered Arezzo. 

The environment of a city, like the environment of a person, 
lends that which it has after all produced something of its own 
qualities. Rome, Florence, Siena, Assisi are what they are 
because of the nature of the country in which they lie. It is 
the same with Arezzo. Her incommunicable allure strikes you 
at once as soon as you enter her gates — a certain smiling aspect, 
subtle and discreet and yet very charming and simple seeming 
in its welcome, its pleasantness and serenity. Yet nothing, I 
think, in the history of Arezzo, of what we know of the history 
of Arezzo — for it is more obscure than that of any other Com- 
mune of the same importance — would lead you to expect an 
aspect so happy, so merely delightful. Nothing in her history ! 
But I am wrong, for it was here both Maecenas and Petrarch 
were born. It would be impossible to doubt it even though 
we had no irrefutable proof of the fact, and indeed I think no 
men have better expressed their birthplace unless — well, unless 
it be Vasari, who was also an Aretine. These three men per- 
fectly explain Arezzo ; its orderliness, its delight, its extra- 
ordinary charm, its profound disregard of anything that 
matters, of anything but a certain decor and endless gossip. 

Books tell you that Arezzo was an Etruscan city, one of the 
greater in the Confederation, but of her adventures and her 
policy at that too remote period we know nothing or very little. 
Her career under the dominion of Rome is most interesting, 
and it helps us to appreciate her age to learn that she was dis- 
loyal during the Punic War, but that towards its close she 
furnished her share of supplies, even weapons and such, to 
Scipio Africanus and his fleet. In the great civil war she 
sided with Marius, and when he fell Cicero pleaded her 
cause. Catiline seems to have had some attraction for her, 
and in Csesar's wars against Pompey she was one of the first 
cities occupied by the former. 

These facts alone would lead us to the conclusion that 



298 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Arezzo was an important town and a place of some strength. 
And a glance at a map confirms us in this. She stands at the 
junction of three great valleys and at the gates of the pass 
which leads from the Val d' Arno to the Val di Tevere. The 
three valleys to which she holds the key — the Val d' Arno, the 
Casentino, and the wide Val di Chiana — are the roads to 
Florence, Pisa, and the sea, to the Romagna and the Adriatic, 
to Rome, the States of the Church, and Southern Tuscany. 
This important position might, it would seem, have created a 
great State. In fact, it ruined a Httle one. Arezzo was never 
in all her long history great or strong enough for the post she 
held. Instead of dominating the Val d' Arno, she was always 
at the mercy of Florence ; instead of holding the road to Rome 
she was often overcome by Perugia and Chiusi and Orvieto ; 
instead of holding the gates of Tuscany against the Barbarians 
from the Romagna, she was often at their feet. Rich in the 
production of personalities, of great men of action, or of the 
arts, she was never able to form a Commune of any perma- 
nence, but was always at the mercy of one of her own children, 
finding peace and stability only under a foreign domination. 
In the thirteenth century she was under the domination 
of the Conti Guidi and of the great Bishops of the Pazzi 
Ubertini, and later of the Tarlati clans. All these chieftains 
were warlike robbers, bent rather on spoil than on the consoli- 
dation of a State, more eager for war than for peace. They 
were thus the natural enemies of the young Commune of 
Florence, which was chiefly bent on commerce. It was 
therefore right and necessary for Florence to crush Arezzo, 
nor was she slow in setting about it. The geographical 
position of Arezzo was too formidable to admit of delay; 
she held too many of the exits and entrances of Tuscany, 
and was able to inflict too many and too easy outrages upon 
the caravans of Florence. It is in the most characteristic and 
in many ways the most important battle of the Middle Age in 
Central Italy — the battle of Campaldino — that Arezzo, Ghibel- 
line since 1262, was for the first time brought low and taken 
by the Florentines, who were presently to bring her altogether 



AREZZO AND BORGO SAN SEPOLCRO 299 

within their dominion. In the Florentine account we have 
one of the most minute descriptions of a mediaeval battle 
anywhere to be found. I therefore give it almost verbatim. 
In 1289, in the month of May, we find, in Villani's words, 
"a host straightway gathered against the city of Arezzo by 
reason of outrages received from the Aretines, and the 
banners of war, on behalf of Florence, were given out on 
the 13th day of May, and the Royal [Naples] Standard was 
borne by M. Gherardo Ventraia de' Tornaquinici, and so 
soon as they were given to them they bore them to the 
abbey of Ripoli, as was their wont, and there they left 
them under guard, making as though they would march by 
that road upon the city of Arezzo. And all the allies being 
come, and the host being ordered by secret counsel, they pur- 
posed to depart by the way of the Casentino, and suddenly, the 
2nd day of June, the bells sounding a tolling, the ever pros- 
perous host of the Florentines set forth, and they bore the 
banners which were at Ripoli across the Arno and held 
the way of Pontassieve, and encamped to await the gather- 
ing of forces on Monte al Pruno ; and there were assembled 
1,600 horse and 10,000 foot, whereof 600 were citizens with 
their horses, the best armed and mounted which ever sallied 
forth from Florence ; and 400 mercenaries, together with the 
following of the Captain M. Amerigo, in the pay of the 
Florentines; and of Lucca there were 150 horsemen; and 
of Prato 40 horsemen and foot-soldiers ; of Pistoia 60 horse 
and foot; and of Siena 120 horse; and of Volterra 40 
horse ; and of Bologna their ambassadors with their com- 
pany, and of Samminiato, and of Sangimignano, and of 
Colle, men mounted and on foot from each place ; and 
Maghinardo of Susinana, a good and wise captain in war 
with his Romagnoli. And the said host being assembled 
they descended into the plain of Casentino, devastating the 
places of Count Guido Novello, who was Podesta of Arezzo. 
Hearing this, the Bishop of Arezzo, with the other captains 
of the Ghibelline party (for there were many men of name 
amongst them) determined to come with all their host to 



300 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Bibbiena, to the end it might not be destroyed; and they 
were 800 horse and 8,000 foot, very fine men; and many 
wise captains of war were among them, for they were the 
flower of the Ghibellines of Tuscany, of the March, and of 
the Duchy and of Romagna ; and all were men experienced 
in arms and in war; and they desired to give battle to the 
Florentines, having no fear ; albeit the Florentines were two 
horsemen to one against them ; but they despised them, 
saying that they adorned themselves like women and combed 
their tresses; and they derided them and held them for 
naught. Truly, there was further cause why the Aretines 
should declare battle against the Florentines, albeit their 
horsemen were two to one against them ; for they were in 
fear of a plot which the Bishop of Arezzo had set on foot 
with the Florentines, and conducted by M. MarsiUo 
de' Vechietti, to give over to the Florentines Bibbiena, 
Civitella, and all the castles of his See, and he to have 
5,000 golden florins each year of his life, in the security 
of the company of the Cerchi. The progress of this plot 
was interrupted by M. Guglielmino Pazzo, his nephew, to 
the end the Bishop might not be slain by the Ghibelline 
leaders; and therefore they hastened the battle and took 
thither the said Bishop, where he was left dead, together 
with the rest ; and thus was the Bishop punished for his 
treason, who at the same time sought to betray both the 
Florentines and his own Aretines. And the Florentines, 
having joyfully received the gage of battle, arrayed them- 
selves; and the two hosts stood over against one another, 
after more ordered fashion both on one side and on the 
other than ever in any battle before in Italy, in the plains at 
the foot of Poppi, in the region of Certomondo, for such is 
the name of the place, and of a church of the Franciscans 
which is near there, and in a plain which is called 
Campaldino; and this was a Saturday morning, the nth 
day of June, the day of S. Barnabas the Apostle. M. 
Amerigo and the other Florentine captains drew up in well- 
ordered troops, and enrolled 150 forefighters of the best of 



AREZZO AND BORGO SAN SEPOLCRO 301 

the host, among which were twenty new-made knights, who 
then received their spurs; and M. Vieri de' Cerchi being 
among the captains, and being lame in the leg, would not 
therefore desist from being among the forefighters ; and since 
it fell to him to make the selection for his sesto^ he would 
not lay this service upon any who did not desire to be 
chosen, but chose himself and his son and nephews; the 
which thing was counted to him as of great merit ; and for 
his good example and for shame many other noble citizens 
offered themselves as forefighters. And this done they flanked 
them on either side by troops of light-armed infantry, and 
crossbowmen and unmounted lancers. Then behind the 
forefighters came the main body, flanked in its turn by 
footmen, and behind all the baggage, so collected as to 
close up the rear of the main body, outside of which 
were stationed 200 horse and foot of the Lucchesi and 
Pistoians and other foreigners, whereof was Captain M. Corso 
Donati, which then was Podesta of Pistoia ; and their orders 
were to take the enemy in flank should occasion rise. The 
Aretines on their part ordered their troops wisely, inasmuch 
as there were, as we have said, good captains of war amongst 
them, and they appointed many forefighters, to the number 
of 300, among which were chosen twelve of the chief leaders, 
who were called The Twelve Paladins ; and each side having 
given a war-cry to their host, the Florentines " Ho, Knights, 
Nerbona," and the Aretines " Ho, Knights, San Donato ! " the 
forefighters of the Aretines advanced with great courage, and 
struck spur to smite into the Florentine host; and the rest 
of their troop followed after, save that Count Guido Novello, 
which was with a troop of 150 horse, to charge in flank, did 
not adventure himself into the battle, but drew back, and then 
fled to his castle ; and the movement and assault made upon 
the Florentines by the Aretines, who esteemed themselves to 
be valiant men-at-arms, was to the end that by their bold 
attack they might break up the Florentines at the first onset 
and put them to flight ; and the shock was so great that most 
of the Florentine forefighters were unhorsed, and the main 



302 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

body was driven backward a good space, but they were not 
therefore confounded nor broken up, but received the enemy 
with constancy and fortitude; and the wings of infantry on 
either side, keeping their ranks well, enclosed the enemy, and 
there was hard fighting for a good space. And M. Corso Donati, 
who was apart with the men of Lucca and Pistoia, and had 
been commanded to stand firm and not to strike under pain 
of death, when he saw the battle begun, said, like a valiant 
man : * If we lose, I will die in the battle with my fellow- 
citizens ; and if we conquer let him that will come to us at 
Pistoia to exact the penalty ; ' and he boldly set his troop 
in motion and struck the enemy in the flank, and was a great 
cause of their rout. And this done, as it pleased God, the 
Florentines had the victory, and the Aretines were routed 
and discomfited, and between horse and foot more than 1,700 
were slain, and more than 2,000 taken, whereof many of the 
best were smuggled away, some for friendship, some in return 
for ransom ; but there came bound to Florence more than 
740 . . . and there was great gladness and rejoicing in 
Florence, with good cause, for at the said discomfiture were 
slain many captains and valiant men of the Ghibelline party 
and enemies of the Commonwealth of Florence, and there 
were brought low the arrogance and pride, not only of the 
Aretines, but of the whole Ghibelline party and of the 
Empire." 

Thus was won the famous battle of Campaldino; but 
Florence was by no means done with her Ghibelline enemies. 
Like all States whose power was in commerce, she was loath 
to fight, but being in it she was quite ruthless. 

"After the said victory," says Villani, "the trumpets were 
sounded for the return from the pursuit and the Florentine 
host was marshalled upon the field; and this done they de- 
parted to Bibbiena and took it without resistance ; and having 
plundered and despoiled it of all its wealth and much booty 
they caused the walls and the fortified houses to be destroyed 
to the foundations, and many other villages round about, and 
they abode there eight days. Whereas if on the day following 



AREZZO AND BOEGO SAN SEPOLCRO 303 

the Florentine host had ridden upon Arezzo without doubt 
they would have taken the city ; but during that sojourn they 
that had escaped from the battle returned thither, and the 
peasants round about took refuge there, and order was taken 
for the defence and guard of the city. The host of the 
Florentines came thither after some days and laid siege to the 
city, continually laying waste the region round about, and taking 
their fortresses so that they gained them nearly all, some by 
force and some on conditions; and the Florentines caused 
many to be destroyed, but they kept possession of Castiglione 
of Arezzo and Montecchio and Rondine and Civitella and 
Laterina and Montesansavino. And with the host there went 
two of the Priors of Florence as inspectors ; and the Sienese 
came in a body with much force of horse and foot, after the 
defeat, to regain their lands taken by the Aretines, and they 
took Lucignano of Arezzo and Chiusura of Valdichiana on 
conditions. And the said Florentine host being at Arezzo in 
the old palace of the Bishops for twenty days, they laid waste 
all round about them, and they ran their races there on the 
feast of S. Giovanni and erected there many engines and hurled 
into the city asses with mitres on their heads in contempt and 
reproach of their Bishop, and raised many wooden towers and 
other works to attack the city ; and a fierce battle ensuing a 
great part of the palisade (for there was not then any other 
wall in that part) was burnt and laid low ; and if the captains 
of the host had made the besiegers fight lustily they would 
have taken the city by storm; but when they should have 
fought they caused the retreat to be sounded, wherefore they 
were held in abomination forasmuch as this was done through 
greed of gain ; for the which cause the people and the com- 
batants, losing heart, were slack in skirmishing and on guard ; 
wherefore the night following they of Arezzo issued forth and 
set fire to many wooden towers and burnt them, with many 
other works, and this done the Florentines lost hope of taking 
the city by battle, and the better part of the host departed, 
leaving the aforesaid strongholds guarded to the end they 
might continually harry the city; and the host returned to 



304 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Florence on the 23rd day of July with great rejoicing and 
triumph." 

Thus failed the first attempt of the Florentines to take 
Arezzo. They paid dear enough for it. Bishop Guglielmo 
was to come, and after him Bishop Guido Tarlati. These 
were great prelates and men of war after the fashion of the 
time, very powerful lords and feudatories of the Empire. 

The first thing we hear of Bishop Guido is that in the year 
of Corso Donati's death the Aretines sent him into exile with 
his friends, the Guelfs returned, and there was peace with 
Florence. But the star of the Empire was not yet set. 
Henry VH entered Italy, every Ghibelline in the peninsula 
lifted up his head, not least the Tarlati. Arezzo, in the hands 
of a faction, they took suddenly from the mountains by storm, 
and having got in they held it, and held it fast. When the 
Empire went down in 13 13 they were not dislodged, and in 
1320 Guido is Bishop and Lord of Arezzo. His first act shows 
the statesman and the captain. He made friends with the 
most redoubtable enemy Florence ever had — Castruccio Cas- 
tracane. With this alliance and his famous band of knights 
he got back all the Ubertini and Pazzi had lost, for Florence 
had her hands full between Pisa and Castruccio. To the 
Aretine dominion he added many a place that till then had 
known nothing of her dominion, such as Lucignano and 
Chiusi, with many smaller places. He utterly destroyed 
Laterina out of hate for the Ubertini, and by treachery 
he took Citta di Castello. Every power in Central Italy 
was soon allied with Florence against him. But he had 
crowned the Emperor with his own hands against the orders of 
the. Pope, and he was friends with Castruccio. With these 
two allies he was safe. Though the Pope excommunicated 
him and gave his lordship to the Ubertini, he could not be 
removed save by death, which found him at last in 1327, 
when, after a quarrel with Castruccio, he went into the Pisan 
Maremma and died of fever in Montenero. It is strange that 
such a man should have died in his bed, but perhaps not so 
strange that he reconciled himself with the Church before the 



AREZZO AND BORGO SAN SEPOLCRO 305 

end and received the Sacraments. His tomb in the Duomo 
by Agostino Agnolo da Siena tells the story of his life. 

After his death things went hardly with Arezzo. In 1335 
the Perugians besieged and took her, marking their victory 
with extraordinary insults and rejoicings. "The victorious 
Perugians," writes Mr. Hey wood,' " not only caused the 
prostitutes who followed the army to run a palio in a 
peculiarly shameless way, but actually supplemented the 
performance with a solemn Mass in the captured Cathedral, 
above which floated the Perugian standard, the red lion of 
the Party Guelph on a white field. Money was coined within 
the sacred precincts, 'and (says the chronicler) there were 
also done many other despites which are not here set 
down.' Lastly the Perugians returned to Perugia. * And the 
prostitutes who had run the palio at Arezzo returned; and 
they came all clad in rosy red, they and their horses ; and 
they brought with them the said palio. Moreover, many 
marble images were brought which were found in the said 
Cathedral, the which images were drawn on wagons by 
oxen ; and the oxen and the wagons were covered with red 
cloth; and the said wagons were set before the wall of the 
Church of S. Lorenzo of Perugia toward the piazza ; and in like 
manner the %^\di palio was placed there, perpetua rei memorie.^ " 

In the following year, 1336, Florence seized Arezzo, and 
though she got free again, yet forty-eight years later she came 
finally into the power of the Florentine Republic, sold by the 
Sieur Euguerrand de Courcy, a freebooter, who had already 
besieged and sacked her. 

The fate of Arezzo was less unhappy than it might seem. 
Occupied by Florence at so early a date, she enjoyed all the 
advantages of the full and splendid life of that city, and, 
indeed, became, as it were, an outpost and suburb of the 
capital. Her citizens were never really loyal to Florence, 
but Vasari the Aretine has not hesitated to falsify history 
to do honour to the city which ruled his native state. 

Perhaps this may explain the charm of Arezzo, her gift of 
^ " Palio and Ponte " (Methuen, 1904)1 p. 2i» 



3o6 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

serenity : she was able to be content ; nor, after the anxieties 
she must have suffered, the hatred and division she must have 
experienced under the Ubertini and the Tarlati, can we be 
surprised at her acquiescence in a rule alien but stable. 
However this may be, it is as a city of profound quiet that 
we find her to-day, set with trees and great open spaces within 
her fair walls of brick at the head of those three valleys at the 
foot of the mountains. 

Full of monuments as she is to her illustrious dead, it is 
not to them but to her churches we look for evidence of her 
splendour. Nor are we disappointed, for her churches per- 
fectly reflect her history — they are full of the best works of 
alien masters. 

There is S. Francesco, for instance, which one comes to 
first on leaving the station : a Franciscan church, of course, 
built nobly in the Franciscan style in 1322. A few works by 
Spinello Aretino greet us, it is true : a fresco on the entrance 
wall of Christ in the house of Simon with S. Mary Magdalen ; 
and on the wall of the south transept we come upon his work 
again in a delightful Annunciation. Another Aretine master, 
Lorentino d' Arezzo, has painted in fresco — work now badly 
injured — the chapel of S, Antonio. And Spinello Aretino 
has some fine work in the chamber of the tower. But what 
we come to S. Francesco to see is not the work of such 
masters as these, but the strong and beautiful work of Piero 
della Francesca in the choir — work that one cannot better 
anywhere in Tuscany, nor, indeed, easily find its match. 

The legend of the Holy Cross, its history from the beginning 
of the world until it was discovered by the Emperor Heraclius 
and later by S. Helena, which Piero della Francesca has 
painted here — by far the most considerable piece of work 
that he achieved during his whole life — is one of the more 
curious dreams of the Christian mind. No longer upheld 
in its entirety by the Catholic Church, it is nevertheless 
true in its intention, since, for the Middle Age at least, the 
Cross was indeed a lovely branch of the Tree of Life which 
is in the midst of the Paradise of God. The beautiful legend 



AREZZO AND BORGO SAN SEPOLCRO 307 

told by Jacques de Voragine in the thirteenth century, and 
translated into English by William Caxton, is but one — albeit 
perhaps the loveliest — of those histories he thought worthy to 
be called " legends worth their weight in gold." 

" The Holy Cross," Voragine tells us, "was found two hundred 
years after the resurrection of our Lord. It is read in the 
Gospel of Nicodemus that when Adam waxed sick, Seth, his 
son, went to the gates of Paradise terrestrial for to get the oil 
of mercy for to anoint withal his father's body. Then ap- 
peared to him S. Michael the angel, and said to him : Travail 
not thou in vain for this oil, for thou mayst not have it till five 
thousand and five hundred years be past, how be it that from 
Adam unto the Passion of our Lord were but five thousand one 
hundred and thirty-three years . In another place it is read that 
the angel brought him a branch, and commanded him to plant 
it. . . . When Seth came again he found his father dead, 
and planted this tree upon his grave, and it endured there 
unto the time of Solomon, and because he saw that it was fair 
he did do hew it down and set it in his house named Sattus. 
And when the Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon she 
worshipped this tree, because she said the Saviour of all the 
world should be hanged thereon, by whom the realm of the 
Jews shall be defaced and cease. Solomon for this cause 
made it to be taken up and dolven deep in the ground. 
Now it happened after, that they of Jerusalem did do make a 
great pit for a piscina, whereat the ministers of the Temple 
should wash their beasts that they should sacrifice, and there 
found this tree and this piscina had such virtue that the angels 
descended and moved the water, and the first sick man that 
descended into the water after the moving was made whole of 
whatsoever sickness he was sick of. And when the time ap- 
proached of the Passion of our Lord this tree arose out of the 
water and floated above the water, and of this piece of timber 
made the Jews the Cross of our Lord. Then, after this 
history, the Cross by which we be saved came of the tree by 
which we were damned, ' and the water of that piscina had 

It was a branch of the Tree of Life that the angel gave to Seth, 
according to another version. 



3o8 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

not this virtue only of the angel but of the tree. With this 
tree whereof the Cross was made there was a tree that went 
overthwart on which the arms of our Lord were nailed, and 
another piece above which was the table wherein the title was 
written, and another piece wherein the socket or mortise was 
made, wherein the body of the Cross stood in, so that there 
were four manner of trees, that is of palm, of cypress, of cedar, 
and of olive. So each of these four pieces was of one of these 
trees. This blessed Cross was put in the earth and hid by the 
space of a hundred years and more, but the mother of the 
Emperor which was named Helena found it in this manner. 
For Constantine came with a great multitude of barbarians 
right unto the river of the Danube, which would have gone 
over for to have destroyed all the country. And when Con- 
stantine had assembled his host he went and set them against 
that other party, but as soon as he began to pass the river 
he was much afraid because he should on the morn have 
battle. And in the night, as he slept in his bed, an angel 
awoke him and showed him the sign of the Cross in heaven 
and said to him : Behold on high in heaven. Then he saw 
the Cross made of right clear light and was written thereupon 
with letters of gold : In this sign thou shalt overcome the 
battle. Then was he all comforted of this vision, and on the 
morn he put in his banner the cross and made it to be borne 
tofore him and his host, and after smote in the host of his 
enemies and slew and chased great plenty. After this he did 
do call the bishops of the idols and demanded them to what 
god the sign of the Cross appertained. And when they could 
not answer, some Christian men that were there told him the 
mystery of the Cross and informed him in the faith of the 
Trinity. These anon he believed perfectly in God and did do 
baptize him, and after it happed that Constantine his son 
remembered the victory of his father and sent to Helena his 
mother for to find the Holy Cross. Then Helena went in to 
Jerusalem and did do assemble all the wise men of the 
country, and when they were assembled they would fain know 
wherefore they were called. Then one Judas said to them : 



AREZZO AND BORGO SAN SEPOLCRO 309 

I wot well that she will know of us where the Cross of Jesu 
Christ was laid, but beware you all that none of you tell 
her, for I wot well then shall our law be destroyed. . . . And 
the Queen called them and demanded them the place 
where our Lord Jesu Christ had been crucified, and they 
would never tell ne enseign her. Then commanded she to 
burn them all, but then they doubted and were afraid and 
delivered Judas to her and said : Lady, this man is the son of 
a prophet and of a just man, and knoweth right well the law 
and can tell to you all things that ye shall demand him. 
Then the Queen let all the others go and retained Judas with- 
out more. Then she showed to him his life and death and 
bade him choose which he would. Show to me, said she, 
the place named Golgotha where our Lord was crucified, 
because, and to the end that we may find the Cross. Then 
said Judas : It is two hundred years passed and more and I was 
not then born. Then said to him the Lady : By Him that 
was crucified I shall make thee perish for hunger if thou tell 
not to me the truth. Then made she him to be cast into a 
dry pit and there tortured him by hunger and evil rest. 
When he had been seven days in that pit then said he : If I 
might be drawn out, I should say the truth. Then he was 
drawn out, and when he came to the place, anon the earth 
moved, and a fume of great sweetness was felt, in such wise 
that Judas smote his hands together for joy and said: In truth 
Jesu Christ, Thou art the Saviour of the world. It was so 
that Hadrian the Emperor had do make, in the same place 
where the Cross lay, a Temple of a goddess,because that all they 
that came in that place should adore that goddess, but the 
Queen did do destroy the Temple. Then Judas made him 
ready and began to dig, and when he came to twenty paces 
deep he found three crosses and brought them to the Queen, 
and because he knew not which was the Cross of our Lord, he 
laid them in the middle of the city, and abode the demon- 
strance of God ; and about the hour of noon there was the 
corpse of a young man brought to be buried. Judas retained 
the bier and laid upon it one of the crosses, and after the 



310 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

second, and when he laid on it the third anon the body that 
was dead came again to life. . . . When Helena had the 
Cross of Jesu Christ and saw that she had not the nails then 
she sent to Bishop Quiriacus that he should go to the place 
and seek the nails. Then did he dig in the earth so long 
that he found them shining as gold ; then bare he them to the 
Queen, and anon as she saw them she worshipped them with 
great reverence. Then gave S. Helena a part of the Cross to 
her son and that other part she left in Jerusalem closed in 
gold, silver, and precious stones. And her son bare the nails 
to the Emperor, and the Emperor did do set them in his bridle 
and in his helm when he went to battle. . . . 

" Now Cosdroe, King of the Persians, subdued to his empire 
all the realms of the world and he came to Jerusalem and was 
afeard and adrad of the sepulchre of our Lord, and returned, 
but he bare with him the part of the Holy Cross that S. 
Helena had left there. And then he would be worshipped of 
all the people as a God and did do make him a tower of gold 
and of silver wherein precious stones shone, and made therein 
the images of the sun and of the moon and of the stars, and 
made that by subtle conduits water to be hid and to come 
down in manner of rain. And in the last stage he made 
horses to draw chariots round about like as they had moved 
the tower and made it to seem as it had thundered. And 
thus this cursed man abode in this temple and delivered his 
realm to his son and did do set the Cross of our Lord 
by him and commanded that he should be called God of 
all the people. And as it is read in Libro de Mitrali Officio : 
the said Cosdroe, resident in his throne as a father, set the 
tree of the Cross on his right side instead of the sun, and the 
cock on the left side instead of the Holy Ghost, and com- 
manded that he should be called father. And then Heraclius 
the Emperor assembled a great host and came for to fight 
with the son of Cosdroe by the river of Danube ; and then it 
pleased to either prince that each of them should fight one 
against that other upon the bridge and he that should vanquish 
and overcome his adversary should be prince of the Empire, 



AREZZO AND BORGO SAN SEPOLCRO 311 

without hurting either of both hosts, and so it was ordained 
and sworn, and that whosomever should help his prince should 
have forthwith his legs and arms cut off and to be plunged and 
cast into the river. And then Heraclius commended him all 
to God and to the Holy Cross with all the devotion that he 
might and then they fought long. And at last our Lord gave 
the victory to Heraclius and subdued to him his Empire. . . . 
Then Heraclius came to Cosdroe and found him sitting in his 
siege of gold and said to him : For as much as after this 
manner thou hast honoured the tree of the Cross if thou wilt 
receive baptism and the faith of Jesu Christ I shall get it to 
thee, and yet shalt thou hold thy crown and realm with little 
hostages and I shall let thee have thy life. And if thou wilt 
not I shall slay thee with my sword and shall smite off thy 
head. And when he would not accord thereto, he did anon do 
smite off his head, and commanded that he should be buried 
because he was a king. And he found with him one his son 
of the age of ten years whom he did do baptize, and lifted him 
from the font and left to him the realm of his father; and 
then did do wrak that tower and gave the silver to them of his 
host and gave the gold and the precious stones for to repair 
the churches that the tyrant had destroyed and took the Holy 
Cross and brought it again to Jerusalem. . . ." 

It is this golden legend that Piero has painted so vigorously 
here in the choir of S. Francesco. How far are we in con- 
templating these frescoes from the passionate asceticism, the 
unearthly beauty of Fra Angelico or Simone Martini ! It is as 
though a new desire had suddenly been born into the world — 
a desire for life where Simone, after all, would have been content 
with beauty. What magnificent vitality have those beautiful 
women, how valiant are those men, how puissant those angels ! 
And, above all, Piero has filled heaven and earth with radiant 
light. It is in the clear and nimble air, in the fair white 
light of our real and beautiful daylight, that he alone of his con- 
temporaries has dared at last to paint man and woman in all 
the sweet energy of life, full of that long breath of God which 
at dawn in a garden first gave us light. The air, exquisite as a 



312 SIENA AND SOUTHEEN TUSCANY 

precious stone faintly coloured with the thought of God, caresses 
the fair flesh of his figures as in our world, only he has given it 
some perfection which we can only hope to see. For his light 
is the light of the profound air of heaven, and he seems to 
rejoice and be glad in it, as the musical lark which adventures 
nearer than we dare to the sun, which is as the smile of God. 
He has already discovered that there is no black in all our 
world. Along the long horizon of the east he has laid the 
shadow of the fingers of God, which is the fairest sunrise ; and 
it is the flash of an angel's wings that obscures the moonbeams 
with light, while through the tired eyelids, delicate and trans- 
lucent, of the great emperor, dazzles the Cross, itself a glowing 
jewel, which brings heaviness to an end with a vision of morn- 
ing. Those clouds for ever a-sail so delicately in the sky, 
what are they but light expressed and made visible, more 
fragile than the sunbeams, of which indeed they are the 
delicate, white daughters, made not of earth, but of dew and 
light and the jewelled fragments of the sea ? They have the 
shape of the wings of angels, and they are as fair as the fairest. 
They are the ships of heaven burthened with light. They are 
the children of the sun ; from him they set out whiter than 
snow in the dawn, to him they will return at evening, drenched 
through and through with the colour of heaven. For Piero 
alone of all his fellows seems to have observed a new form of 
energy in light itself; to him it is the one thing that is very 
precious. He perhaps understood that the act of creation 
began and ended with Fiat Lux. From that moment life 
began, and lasts while the sun, or the light, or the moon, or 
the stars be not darkened, or the ceaseless dawns that encircle 
our world be not finished, or the luminous night shall still 
climb out of the reluctant sea, until the shadows flee away 
because there is no more light under the sky, since it has fled 
back into the eyes of God. 

One lonely and magnificent figure he left behind him at 
Arezzo in the Cathedral — a figure of S. Mary Magdalen, very 
noble and reticent. She adorns no altar, but in a quiet 
corner of the great church — a little lonely, because, perhaps, 



AREZZO AND BORGO SAN SEPOLCRO 313 

unlike the great multitude of the saints, she has loved much, 
and seen, and understood, and has suffered great experiences, 
and only learned to acquiesce at last in the scrupulous orderli- 
ness of God because of love — she stands very sorrowful, since 
she alone of all those clouds on clouds of saints really under- 
stands. Well, it is always so ; we find Piero emotionally 
under the influence of the Middle Age, and yet himself 
perhaps a kind of emancipator or deliverer from its mysticism, 
at times hardly less astonishing than Luca Signorelli, his pupil. 
For he, too, was occupied rather with his art than with the 
expression of ideas about religion. He was the first painter, 
perhaps, to study perspective scientifically. Problems of light, 
the action of Hght on beautiful faces or hair, the action of 
light upon light, would certainly seem to have fascinated him 
almost all his life long. And yet he has not discarded the 
ideas that were then gradually becoming less insistent in the 
world, but in all their modesty and beauty he has used them 
without question as a means of attaining a beauty bought 
with much toil and feverish endeavour. His Magdalen is 
not the ecstatic and splendid courtesan that we see on Titian's 
canvas, but a beautiful and lonely woman, who will ever 
remember that lingering dawn in the garden, when, in the 
midst of her passionate weeping, the gardener came so quietly 
and spoke her name, and in a moment she knew Him whom 
she had loved. 

Other things, too, there are in that beautiful Italian church, 
though none so fine as this Magdalen. The tomb of Gregory X 
in the right aisle, and close by, over an early Christian sar- 
cophagus, a fresco of the Crucifixion by Spinello Aretino. 
Nor is Spinello the only Aretine artist whose work we find 
here, for the fine sculptures of the high altar — the Madonna 
with S. Gregory and S. Donate, with scenes from the lives of 
those saints — are from the hand of Giovanni di Francesco da 
Arezzo, and were made about 1365. 

In the left aisle we come upon the noble tomb — the work 
of the two Sienese, Agostino and Agnolo — of the great and 
terrible Bishop Guido Tarlati, whereon, set forth in carving, 
are the scenes of his life even as I have told them. 



314 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Close by opens the chapel of the Madonna, a building of 
the eighteenth century. We shall scarcely rejoice in it, 
though we shall at what it contains — five excellent terra- 
cottas by Andrea della Robbia. 

In the sacristy — why in the sacristy ? — is a fine terra-cotta 
relief of the Annunciation by Antonio Rossellino, a fresco by 
Bartolommeo della Gatta of S. Jerome in penitence and three 
predella pictures by his master, Luca Signorelli, of the Birth, 
Presentation, and Marriage of the Blessed Virgin. 

But perhaps the most beautiful church in Arezzo is not the 
Cathedral, fine though it be, but S. Maria della Pieve, with its 
tower and fine fagade and sculptures. Within, too, it is 
delightful, and it holds a very great treasure — an altarpiece 
by Pietro Lorenzetti. Built up in compartments with pin- 
nacles, this splendid work was painted in Siena in 1320. 
There we see the Blessed Virgin, in half-length, with our Lord 
in her arms between S. John Baptist, S. Matthew, S. John 
Evangelist, and S. Donato. Above is the Annunciation and 
the Assumption, S. Luke and S. Vincent and S. Catherine, 
S. Paul and another Saint, S. MarceUinus, S. Augustine, and 
S. Agatha ; over all stands S. Reparata. 

Only a man of the greatest force could have compassed 
this fine and even passionate work. The hand of Pietro is 
everywhere visible, and the picture may, in fact, take its place 
beside the work of Giotto. There is no predella^ and, save 
for some abrasion in the face of the infant Saviour, the 
work is in perfect preservation. 

Coming out of the church we pass under Vasari's Logge to 
the Corso and the Palazzo Pubblico, now a prison. Close 
by is the Via dell' Orto, where at No. 22 Petrarch was born. 
He was an Aretine only by chance, his father having been 
expelled from Florence but a few months before his birth. 
He left the city when he was still a child, and only once 
returned to it, in 1350, when he went to Rome for the 
Jubilee. 

Of the other churches of Arezzo, only S. Bernardo and 
the SS. Annunziata hold anything very well worth seeing. 




Lea Signorelli 



Pinacoteca Ai 



ALTAR-PIECE 



"^^ OF THE . 

UNIVERSITY I 



AREZZO AND BORGO SAN SEPOLCRO 315 

S. Bernardo is in the Via di S. Bernardo, a turning out of the 
Corso near the station, and there in a lunette over the entrance 
is a vision of S. Bernard by Bartolommeo della Gatta. The 
Santissima Annunziata, which is reached from tha Corso by the 
Via Garibaldi, is a fine Renaissance church built by Antonio 
da Sangallo; it contains a fresco of the Evangelists by 
Spinello Aretino, and a picture of the Madonna and Child 
with S. Francis by Pietro da Cortona. 

Close by where the Via Garibaldi crosses the Via di S. Loren- 
tino is the Museum, with a small picture gallery on the second 
floor. Here are some characteristic works by Margharitone 
of Arezzo, together with a fine Signorelli, the Madonna, 
Saints, and Prophets, painted in 15 19 for the Compagna di 
S. Girolamo ; and two works by Bartolommeo della Gatta — a 
S. Roch standing, painted in 1479, ^^^ ^ S. Roch kneeling. 
Here, too, is a fine Tabernacle by Alunno di Domenico, a 
Magdalen and S. Antony at the foot of the Cross, a beautiful 
work by Sellajo, Madonna of the Rose-hedge, and a Christ 
bearing the Cross, by Rosso Fiorentino. 

There are also several works by Vasari, one of Arezzo's 
most valiant sons. 

These are the more obvious treasures of a city which is 
in itself one of the most delightful of Tuscan towns, a place, 
too, that is the key to a whole world of fine country and beau- 
tiful things ; the Casentino, for instance, and the upper Val 
d' Arno and the great pass into the Tiber Valley with Borgo 
S. Sepolcro as a prize at the end. Of the Casentino I have 
spoken elsewhere, and in truth we need not go so far as 
that to find one of those delights to which Arezzo is the gate. 
Only some half-mile out of the Barriera Vittorio Emanuele, 
taking the second road on the right and then the first on the 
left, is the Church of S. Maria delle Grazie, with a fine porch 
by Benedetto da Majano and an altar by Andrea della Robbia. 
Here, too, is a fresco of the Madonna of Mercy by Bartolo di 
Fredi, and a fragment of a scene from the life of S. Donato by 
Piero della Francesca. 

But the most beautiful of all these treasures to which Arezzo 



3i6 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

holds the key is Borgo San Sepolcro in the Tiber Valley. Though 
it is very far over the hills you may nowadays go easily there 
and back in a day by the little railway which crosses the 
mountains by the aid of many tunnels, and takes you easily 
over the great watershed that divides Val d' Arno from Val 
di Tevere. There are very few things more lovely in the world 
than the upper valley of the Arno, but one of them is, I think, 
the upper valley of the Tiber. It is a landscape more virile 
than Umbria — a landscape by Piero della Francesca, in fact, and 
in Borgo it is his work you find, for the little town is his birth- 
place. 

That " Resurrection of Christ " in the Municipio is perhaps 
the most beautiful representation of the triumph of Christ in 
the world. You journey over the mountains from Arezzo for 
hours amid all the clear beauty of Tuscan hills that have 
something not Tuscan about them, and at last in the valley 
of the Tiber you come upon a tiny city at the foot of Monte 
Maggiore of the Central Apennines. There, amid all the 
quietness of a country place, in the cool rooms of the 
Municipio, are set such works of Piero as remain in his 
birthplace — an altarpiece in oil and tempera, till lately in 
the Ospedale della Misericordia, and two frescoes, S. Ludovico 
and the Resurrection. 

The fresco of the Resurrection comes upon us with a kind 
of surprise ; we had not suspected Piero of so much thought- 
fulness. It is as though he had listened to some voice, or 
seen a vision, or on some fortunate day had been led away the 
captive of Love, for him as for Dante a Lord of terrible aspect, 
who has shown him the places of Death and Sorrow. In the 
cold light of the earliest morning, mere sunless dawn as yet, 
Christ has risen and is standing in His tomb. His experience 
is in His face, the dawn of knowledge, perhaps, of the sorrows 
of humanity. It is as though for the first time He had really 
understood the power of evil, to which, after all, we are so 
unwillingly the slaves, the hopeless misery of that state of 
imperfect love. The noise of Hell has furrowed His face, 
and He has only just escaped into our quiet world. Beneath 



AREZZO AND BORGO SAN SEPOLCRO 317 

that terrible and beautiful figure, inspired for the first time 
with thought, down whose endless vistas His soul has 
fled these three days, lie four soldiers, sleeping in the 
noiseless twilight. Behind the green trees on the right the 
first exquisite frail light of dawn is coming to comfort 
the world, and with the return of the Prince of Life the 
first day of spring has come; already the flowers have 
blossomed and the trees have budded behind Him as He 
came out of the sunrise, and when He shall turn at last into 
the garden, where Mary will find Him, those bare boughs, 
that naked hill-side, that brown and sterile earth will quicken, 
too, even as the hills that He has already crossed. All the 
passion of His encounter with Death and the dead is graven 
on His face, and though men sleep He can know no rest ; 
He is up before them, and the whole long day is waiting for 
Him. He is stronger than Time, which has swept everything 
away, for He who made Death has struck him dead again. 
Yes, in looking on this fresco one seems to understand that 
for all those years before He came there is only silence. For 
Piero has expressed not only the old magical truths of 
Paganism and Christianity, the joy of the world at the 
coming of Spring, the triumph of the Prince of Life in a 
world pallid with the fear of Death, but the subtler and 
more terrible thoughts, too, of the age of thought that was 
just then dawning on the world. He seems to see a God 
no longer delicate and exquisitely pitiful, gracious and vic- 
torious in an encounter where the end was not doubtful for 
a moment, but one innocent and almost ignorant of evil 
and the tragedy of mankind, suddenly 'confronted with it. 

Well may we call Piero the master of Signorelli, the Orvieto 
frescoes are implicit in this terrible Christ, But, curiously 
enough, nothing of Piero is to be found in the Standard by 
Luca here in the Municipio of Borgo San Sepolcro. The 
Crucifixion, which covers one side of this Standard, is a work 
of restless dramatic realism, and, in fact, the least successful 
of all Signorelli's renderings of this subject. It is heavy and 
hard and without harmony. We turn from it with relief to 



3i8 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

the Perugino in the Duomo or to the Matteo di Giovanni 
there and at the Servi. 

The Ascension by Perugino in the Duomo is a beautiful 
work, though only in part by the master. It is divided into 
two parts : above Christ in a mandorla of Cherubim, sur- 
rounded by angels playing music, ascends into heaven ; while 
below Madonna, surrounded by the Twelve Apostles with S. 
Paul, watches His flight very wistfully. Far away we catch a 
glimpse of the world, while the sky is serene and full of air 
in which delicate clouds float, on which the four angels stand 
playing, and seem about to dance for joy. 

The Matteo di Giovanni here is an interesting work, a 
polyptych, the centre panel of which, the Baptism, by Piero 
della Francesca, is now in the National Gallery. Piero had 
painted there a figure almost as strange and tragic as the 
Christ of the Resurrection, and about it Matteo placed some 
charming scenes and figures — scenes from the life of the 
Blessed Virgin and S. John the Baptist, with SS. Peter and 
Paul. 

Better than this polyptych is Matteo's work in the Servi 
Church, painted in 1457, an Assumption with S. Paul and S. 
Lucy, S. John Baptist, and S. Filippo Benizzi. 

It was with such things as these in my heart that I made 
my way back to Arezzo, and, regretting them, took my leave 
of Southern Tuscany. 



NOTES 

Note lipage 4 

ON the history of Castel-Fiorentino the reader should 
consult M. CiONi in " Miscellanea Storica della 
Valdelsa," An vi (1898), fasc. 2 and 3. Signor Cioni gives 
us a documented account of Castel-Fiorentino during the 
reign of Henry VII and a Summary of the history of the 
city. He argues that Castel-Fiorentino was the " centre of the 
national defence" in the year 131 2-13 when Henry attacked 
Florence at the behest of Dante. With his conclusions I am 
not altogether in agreement. Henry VII came into Tuscany 
from Rome by way of Todi, Arezzo, and the Val d' Arno 
superiore^ where at Incisa (Ancisa) the Florentines compelled 
him to fight before, encamping at S. Salvi, he was able to lay 
siege to Florence. This was in September, 1312. There he 
remained, surrounding the city it is true, but never daring to 
attack, till i November, when, in the night, he crossed the 
Arno and set out via S. Casciano for Poggibonsi. So far all 
the defence as well as the attack had taken place far to the 
east of Castel-Fiorentino. 

In Poggibonsi the Emperor was attacked from Colle and 
S. Gimignano by the forces of King Robert and of Florence 
respectively, "so that his state was much diminished." His 
forces were further depleted by the departure of Rupert of 
Flanders, who, as he marched up Val d' Elsa, was taken on the 
flank at Castel-Fiorentino, and a great part of his men were 
slain. This is the first time Castel-Fiorentino comes into the 

story. 

319 



320 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

On 9 March, 13 13, Henry himself, with scarce 1,000 horse, 
marched up Val d' Elsa into Val d' Arno and so to Pisa. 
That he was not attacked as he passed Castel-Fiorentino 
is not surprising, for no burgher levies, however numerous, 
would be likely to leave the shelter of their walls to attack 
1,000 German troops. It is surprising, however, if Castel- 
Fiorentino were " the centre of the national defence," seeing 
that only a short time before Rupert of Flanders had been 
crushed. 

In Pisa Henry remained till 5 August, 13 13, when he 
set out for Naples considerably strengthened [see Villani, 
"Cronica," Lib. ix, cap. 51]. On the way he attacked 
Castel-Fiorentino, but was evidently not anxious to take it, 
for the assault was unsuccessful and not pressed, and ten days 
later we find he had passed Siena and was encamped at 
Stigliano and Orgia on 16 August, forty miles from Castel- 
Fiorentino, and this after encamping at Montaperto and 
negotiations with Siena. On 24 August he was dead in 
Buonconvento. 

Such is the story of the Emperor's attack on Tuscany, and I 
do not find any evidence there at all to support the statement 
that Castel-Fiorentino, which Professor Villari in his account 
of the affair does not so much as name, was " the centre of the 
national defence " as asserted by Signor Cioni. 



JVofe 2^ page 58 

While it is true to say that history has little or nothing to 
do with the town of Poggibonsi, strictly, I suppose, one should 
not dissever the history of the borgata from that of the castello. 
In regard to Poggibonsi, however, I think such a separation is 
to be defended, for while the town of Poggibonsi has no inter- 
national significance, the castello above it is of considerable 
importance. 

The town {borgata) of Poggibonsi is, however, of consider- 
able antiquity. It was founded after the battle of Colle, 
"when the Florentines, with Count Guido di Montfort (1270), 
vicar in Tuscany for King Charles, destroyed Poggibonsi [the 



NOTES 321 

castello] and demolished the walls. Then the terrazzani^ 
deprived of all civil jurisdiction, were constrained to descend 
into the plain, where they built an open borgata. Hence the 
origin of what we call modern Poggibonsi." See Razzi in 
" Miscellanea Storica della Valdelsa," An v (1897), fasc. 2. 
Cf. Repetti " Dizionario," not only under " Poggibonsi " but 
also under " Poggio Imperiale." 

Poggibonsi, or Poggi-Bonzi, as Lassells calls it, certainly 
existed as a flourishing town with a " famous " snuff factory in 
the seventeenth century. Richard Lassells came to Poggi- 
bonsi from Florence precisely along the route of the Emperor 
Henry VII. " From hence " [Florence], he says, " passing 
through San Cassiano we arrived at night at Poggi-Bonzi, a 
little towne famous for perfumed Tobacco in powder, which the 
Italians and Spaniards take farre more frequently than we, as 
needing neither candle nor tinder-boxe to light it withall ; nor 
useing any other pipes than their owne noses." 

As for the castello of Poggibonsi that the Florentines 
destroyed after the battle of Colle, it rose again in Florentine 
hands to figure in the battle of 1479, when, after the failure of 
the Pazzi conspiracy. Pope Sixtus IV having leagued himself 
with Siena and Ferrante of Naples, the allies invaded the 
Florentine territory and won a victory at Poggio Imperiale. 
See W. Heywood, " A Pictorial Chronicle of Siena " (Torrini, 
Siena, 1902), pp. 71-2. This victory is commemorated in the 
Sala del Mappamondo of the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena in a 
fresco by Francesco di Andrea and Giovanni di Cristofano. 
See Broghesi e Banchi, " Anovi Documenti per la storia dell' 
arte Senese " (Siena, Torrini, 1898), p. 226. 

After taking Poggibonsi the allies attacked Colle, but the 
place made a gallant defence, even the women fighting in 
the breaches made by the cannon. They were beaten at last, 
however, and the triumphal entry of the allies is commemorated 
in one of the Tavolette di Gabella. Cf. W. Heywood, op, cit, 
p. 72. 

Note T,, page 77 

On this legend, the substantial truth of which seems very 
doubtful, see L. Banchi, " Le origini favolese di Siena second© 

Y 



322 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

una presunta cronica romana di Tisbo Colonnese" (Siena 
Tip. air ins. di S. Bernardino, 1882 (per le nozze Papanti 
Girandini). 

Note /if, page 77 

What we know of Roman Siena we owe entirely to the 
enthusiasm and learning of P. Rossi in two Conferenze, and 
several articles in the Bullettino Senese di Storia Patria, 
Consult especially " Siena, Colonia Romano " in Conferenze 
della Com. Sen. di Stor. Patria (Siena, 1897) and "Le 
Inscrizioni romana del territorio senese" in Bullettino Senese 
vols, ii, iv, &c. 



The Birth of the Commune 

Note 5, page 78 

There was certainly something more than the mere germ of 
feudaUsm in Italy before Charlemagne. It is impossible to go 
into the subject here. As to the Bishops, Lanzani ("Storia dei 
Comuni Italiani dalle origini al 13 13") points out, their power 
was in great part due to the reforms of Charlemagne. But 
even before his day they had been large landed proprietors, 
and were then among the principal tenants in capite of the 
Crown, ranking with marquises and counts and forming part 
of the ordines majores of the feudal nobility. Moreover, their 
spiritual dignity and the fact that their ecclesiastical benefices 
were not hereditary seemed to commend them for temporal 
power also. In the anarchy which followed the death of 
Charlemagne they confirmed their power, acquiring many of 
the prerogatives the Crown was unable to exercise which 
it seemed could safely be conceded as life privileges to an 
elective aristocracy. The chief gainer, however, by the rise 
of the Bishops was not the Crown but the Italian people, who 
at that time formed the lowest class of the inhabitants of the 
cities, and who, though in a state of political inferiority, 
carried on all the manufactures, the trade and commerce of 
the country. Feudalism at first proved not favourable to the 



NOTES 323 

social position of the trading classes. The Bishop, whose 
ecclesiastical dignity was for many purposes a civil office, 
appeared really as an emancipator. For it is certain that 
every privilege and immunity conceded by the Sovereign to 
the Bishop tended to decrease the power and authority of 
the lay representatives of the Crown within the walls of the 
cities. In the inevitable struggle it was only natural that 
the Italians, i.e.^ the mass of the urban population, should 
prefer a ruler whose interests were bound up with those of 
their city and who had, in fact, raised walls to protect them 
from the hordes of barbarians who marched from one end of 
Italy to the other, whose natural prey they were. We have 
thus a state within a state, a gau within a gau^ and within the 
civic territory we find two forces in opposition ; both feudal, 
both owing their origin to the same ideas. The government 
of the Count continued to exhibit that spirit of individualism 
and of disintegration which, apart from the cities, characterized 
for centuries the political movement in Italy : that of the 
Bishop lent itself gradually more and more to the evolution 
of the civitas. Presently every vestige of the political unity of 
the gau is lost and forgotten, save the obligation of the free 
man to join the heribannus when summoned by the Count in 
the name of the Sovereign ; and finally even this relic of his 
authority is taken from the Count, and we see the city with its 
two classes of population under the exclusive and undisputed 
authority of the Bishop, whose dominion in Siena at any rate 
seems to have reached beyond the walls over a considerable 
tract of suburban territory. 

Thus rises clearly before us the civitas and the contado {comi- 
tatus) ; the civitas governed by laws and traditions which were 
Latin, the contado by those of the Teutonic race. We should 
almost certainly be wrong, however, if we were to attribute the 
foundation of municipal government in Italy to the Latin 
population. The population of the cities was mixed always : 
the pioneers of Italian enfranchisement were probably the 
Lombardi and Cattani. (See G. Volpe, "Questioni fonda- 
mentali sull' origine e svolgimento dei Comuni Italiani" 
(sec. x-xiv), Pisa, Tip. Successori Fratelli Nistri, 1904.) 

In Siena, probably more than in any other city, the Count 



324 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

continued to exercise beside the Bishop some considerable 
authority within the city itself. It was not the Count, whom 
even in Siena the Bishop had superseded, who brought the 
rule of the Bishops low at last. It was war. The guilds and 
associations of handicraftsmen were of necessity converted 
into military companies. Soon every quarter of the city had 
its Captain and its banner. And it is here we discover the 
germs of the next political movement. 

As yet the Italian had no share in his own government. He 
had been ruled by the Count and then by the Bishop. The 
dependence of the latter in time of war on the associations 
and guilds for fighting-men brought about a new state of 
affairs. To begin with, it split the whole body of citizens into 
two great classes, never very clearly defined, it is true, but in 
the mass obvious enough — the milites or fighting- men and the 
populus. The former were most probably chiefly composed 
of the lower Teutonic nobility. They saw their opportunity 
in the depehdence of the State upon their services as soldiers 
and seized it. They demanded a part in their own govern- 
ment, and it was impossible to deny it to them. Thus rose 
the consuls, their representatives, who at first seem to have 
advised the Bishop, then ruled with him, and at length super- 
seded him altogether. In the first half of the twelfth century 
we find the Bishop and the consuls associated in the govern- 
ment of the city and the latter already becoming predominant. 
Just how these changes came about we do not know, the 
Chronicles are silent; but it seems certain that the lower 
feudal nobility within the city were the authors of a change 
that was by no means of purely Latin origin. 

Thus rose the Commune, a mixed government, lay and 
ecclesiastic, which seems to have been particularly perfect 
in Siena. What was this Commune? It was absolutely 
aristocratic. The people {populus) was still a very pitiable 
thing. It was not till 1147 that it won its first modest victory 
and elected a consul to represent it. This probably came 
about by mediation of the Bishop, who possibly hoped to 
retain his power by creating a formidable opponent to the 
consul of the milites. There was no doubt much bitterness 
between the two parties {milites and populus)^ and the move 



NOTES 325 

was very likely effective at the moment. But the effective 
representation of the people doomed the power of the Bishop, 
and already in 1158 the Emperor acknowledged the existence 
of the Commune, probably gladly, and protected it. And 
when, in 11 69, Bishop Ranieri, who had ruled so long and so 
well, quarrelled with the consuls who wished to compel the 
Sienese clergy to transfer their allegiance to the antipope, the 
end was come. After placing Siena under an interdict, he 
fled for his life, and not long after died in Narni, on 27 May, 
1 1 70. (See Langton Douglas, "A History of Siena," 
pp. 22-27.) The final popular victory was achieved eighty 
years later, when, in 1253, the arti appear effectively upon 
the scene and the Captain of the People was established. The 
Rise of the Commune then may be summed up under the 
following heads : — 

(a) The Counts are superseded by the Bishops. 

(/3) The Bishops are superseded by the Commune, com- 
posed at first of nobili and gentiluomini. 

(y) The Populus imposes itself upon the Commune. The 
movement began in 1147 and was really completed 
in 1253 with the establishment of the Captain of the 
People. 

The reader may consult with profit Mr. Heywood's 
"Guide to Siena," p. 30. 

Note ^i page 81 

It would be consoling to believe that Siena thus early 
established a civilized and Latin rule in the contado in place 
of the barbarism of the nobles. But that she did not is 
certain. It is possible that the Customary Law of Siena at 
this time contained the germs of a civilized order, but the 
reader must not confuse — even at a later period — the internal 
legislation of the Commune with Siena's feudal rule in the 
contado. See i7ifra^ p. 330, note 9. 



326 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

The Fourteenth Century in Siena 
Note "i^ pages 76, 92 

The sketch I have given of Sienese history, slight as it is, 
embraces all that period in which there remained to her a 
chance of holding her own in Tuscany. After the battle of 
Colle that chance was no longer hers : the victory of Florence 
was certain. Of course, as has been said, the eventual 
triumph of Florence was in some sort certain from the 
beginning. The geographical position of Siena denied her 
too much in comparison with her rival. But for years she had 
been able to hold her own, and at Montaperto had for a 
moment seen Florence at her mercy. She refused the oppor- 
tunity offered by the chance of battle of disposing of her 
enemy once and for all, and that opportunity was never to 
recur. Why ? 

In a book such as this political questions can only be dealt 
with very briefly, but we may perhaps try to give some hint of 
the answer to that question; and for this reason: because 
we have so unhesitatingly dated the decadence of Siena from 
the end of the thirteenth century and the destruction of the 
Government of the Twenty-Four, though to many the Govern- 
ment of the Nine seems, and in some sort rightly, the best 
Siena ever had. 

What we see when the Government of the Twenty- Four has 
fallen is the very real development of Democracy in Siena. 
Now history continually shows us the spectacle of decadence 
marching hand in hand with a growing Democracy, and for all 
that I could ever hear or learn we have no single example 
to the contrary. It might seem that the development of 
Democracy is itself decadence, or at least a perfect symptom 
of it. 

Democracy as we understand it to-day means politically the 
government of a nation or an empire by the most ignorant of 
its people, and I suppose that no one can be found to defend 
it save as the only thing left to us that is bearable at all. 
Whether, in fact, it prove even possible under pressure from 
without remains to be seen, and he would appear wisest who 
is most sceptical. Siena certainly gives us no encouragement. 



NOTES 327 

As long as her government was aristocratic she was just able 
to hold her own against Florence in spite of the latter's 
immense natural advantages. When she once established a 
form of Democracy within her gates she was finally vanquished, 
and by herself. 

We have seen the failure of Siena ascribed to many causes : 
to the rupture with the Papacy, to her change from Ghibel- 
linism to Guelfism, to the economic effect of the establishment 
of the Florentines as Papal bankers, to the Plague of 1348, in 
which she suffered so severely. As I believe, there is only one 
final cause for the failure of a State as of an individual, and 
that cause is inward rottenness. It was Siena herself who 
destroyed Siena, and we see her at work all through the four- 
teenth century. It is true that that period shows her more 
free than ever before, more completely subject only to her- 
self; probably the condition, the material condition, of her 
people was better than it had been, and in the general 
amelioration of the world it would have been surprising had it 
not been so. But it is better to be strong than not being 
strong to indulge in liberty, which is the reward of the strong. 
It is better to be strong than to live well, to eat plenty, or to 
dwell in good houses. It is better to be strong than to be 
free, or even to be happy, because if you be strong all 
these things shall be added to you, and if you be not 
strong, though you have all these things they shall be 
taken from you. 

The development of Democracy ever follows one or both of 
two courses : it produces first a plutocracy and then a mere 
anarchy, or it produces at once faction — the curse of party 
government, whose basis is not love but hate. In Siena, as 
we might expect in a highly concentrated city State, we have 
both these curses produced together. After Colle (1269) the 
plutocracy for its own ends insisted that the city should hence- 
forth profess itself Guelf, and already by 1277 "the good 
merchants of the Guelf party " ^ should alone be capable of 
holding oflfice in the "Thirty-Six," which later became the 
''Fifteen" (1280), and finally the "Nine" (1285). The 

^ There is a Pecksniffian unction in the phrase that recalls, how vividly, 
the modern Radical. 



328 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

nobles, the aristocracy, were got rid of; henceforth Siena 
was to be a futile Democracy at the mercy, as always, of 
riches. 

It is only the might-have-been that is profoundly interesting 
in history ; and in the change that the fourteenth century saw 
in Siena we have a fine example of that truism. How different 
the whole history of Italy, even of Europe, might have been 
if Siena had been true to herself, had destroyed Florence after 
Montaperto in 1260, and had never become Guelf after 
CoUe in 1269. Then when Henry VII came into Italy in 
13 10 there would have been no Tuscan League, no "wolf 
polluting Arno," as Dante said, but Siena, the strongest power 
in Tuscany, enthusiastically GhibeUine, would have greeted 
him, and the Empire might have been indeed restored. Siena 
failed, and she failed because she had delivered herself to the 
Democracy. 

What indeed befell was vastly different from what might 
have been, and after all the chief sufferer was Siena. Incapable 
of war since she had deprived the nobles of power, she was 
distracted by faction, class hatred, and party strife. Deprived 
of responsibility, the nobles, her only military leaders capable of 
defending her, indulged in family feuds and private war, and 
when the Companies of Adventure appeared, the direct result of 
the incapacity of the people for war, they joined them and 
preyed upon the fear of the cities whose citizens were entirely 
absorbed in money-making. The State became a mere means 
to an end — money-making and peace to be bought at the 
price demanded by the only virile class left in Italy — the 
outlaws, the nobles. 

This contemptible state of affairs is immortalized for us in 
the frescoes of Ambrogio Lorenzetti in the Palazzo Pubblico 
of Siena, where we see the sentimental ideals of the hypo- 
critical Democratic Government confusedly set forth in 
detail. 

Meantime wealth increased vastly, and the hired armies 
marched about seeking employment. Then in 1348 the 
Black Death, like the wrath of God, fell upon Siena, and 
completed what the Democracy had so well begun. In that 
appalling catastrophe the Nine went down, and were replaced 



NOTES 329 

by that cynical jest we call the Government of the Twelve. 
For near seventy years, then, Siena had been governed by a 
rich middle class; it now entered on the second stage of 
Democratic Government — it fell into the hands of the small 
tradesmen. This befell in 1355, and the final stage was 
achieved in 1368, when the artisans, the popolo minuto^ 
acquired a part in the government. Meanwhile faction grew 
stronger every day, the Companies of Adventure became more 
and more intolerable, and at last commercial depression fell 
upon the city. The Democracy had achieved the result it 
has invariably achieved. Siena was ruined and utterly weak ; 
only the confusion of Italy saved her for a period from that 
Nemesis that had awaited her ever since Colle — that new and 
foreign government which was to take hold of her and draw 
her into a State at whose head, had she known how to use the 
means she had, she might possibly have stood. 

What is, then, chiefly worth our notice during the fourteenth 
and fifteenth centuries, is not the political decadence but the 
Renaissance of Painting, which the wealth and luxury of the 
merchants certainly assisted. It is to that we shall devote 
our attention in this book when thinking of these two 
centuries. 

PoGGio S. Cecilia 

Note 2>ypage 201 

From an historical point of view this is one of the most 
interesting places in the Sienese contado. When the Ghibel- 
lines were expelled from Siena in 1269 they took refuge where 
they could. No doubt their hopes were raised by the Sicilian 
Vespers at Easter, 1282, but already Florence, Siena, Lucca, 
Prato, and Volterra were leagued against their cause, and they 
were afraid to move. In 1284 came the battle of Meloria, in 
which their last hope, Pisa, suffered the loss of her fleet. The 
exiles were then without a refuge. In October, 1285, 
however, the Sienese /uorusdt/, with the help of the Bishop of 
Arezzo, seized Poggio S. Cecilia, a place then very strongly 
fortified, and easily defended even to-day. " And," says the 



330 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

Chronicler, " they held the place against the Sienese and the 
Florentines and all Tuscany for fourteen months and eighteen 
days until they were compelled to eat rats and to gnaw the 
leather of their shields ; and they collected the dew for the 
thirst which they had. . . . Finally on the night of Good 
Friday, being able to endure no longer, they abandoned the 
castle and issued forth and fled during a great rain ; and so 
they saved themselves alive." 

However, Andrea Dei tells a different tale. "Many of 
them were taken as they went forth and were led to Siena, 
and while they were in the Palace of the Podesta, whither 
they had been taken to be put to death, the people rose in 
tumult, crying, ' Peace ! Peace ! ' and they began to attack 
the Palace. Wherefore the Nine who then governed the 
State were afraid, and they gave them the gonfalon and sur- 
rendered unto them the prisoners. Then the people took the 
prisoners to the Palace of the Bishop, who had come to their 
aid when the tumult commenced. And they were by them- 
selves and the Guelfs with their followers set upon them in 
the Campo ; and they brake them and discomfited them, the 
Monday after Easter; and they got them to the Palace of 
the Bishop and drew forth the prisoners and led them into 
the Campo ; and there they cut off the heads of five of the 
chief among them and the rest they hanged between the 
Arbia and the Bozzone ; and the number of them was 
sixty." 

" Poggio Santa Cecilia," Mr. Hey wood tells us (I have 
quoted his translation), "was razed to the ground." Cf. W. 
Heywood and L. Olcott, " Guide to Siena " (Torrini, Siena, 
^903)> PP- 52-3- Cf. also ViLLARi, "I primi due Secoli," 
Appendix. 

Note 9, page 204 

The reader must not suppose that Siena stood alone among 
the mediaeval Communes of Italy in the badness of her rule in 
the contado. Her rule was absolutely bad, but not relatively. 
Some of Siena's subject cities were loyal to her when the end 
came. None of Florence's were, I think. At any rate it 
seems that Florence ruled her contado even worse than Siena, 



NOTES 331 

and Mr. Heywood tells me that Perugia did too; he also 
draws my attention to the defence of Monticchiello, which 
"held out gallantly for more than two weeks," the garrison 
being "compelled to defend themselves with stones, since 
powder was lacking for the arquebuses." This in the defence 
of the Sienese State against the Imperialists in 1553. He 
adds, " Neither Florence nor Perugia inspired such love and 
loyalty as that." 

The explanation may be that there were Sienese in the city. 
No blame, however, can be too strong for such a system as that 
by which Siena ruled her contado. If it were indeed better 
than that of Florence and Perugia, it is difficult to understand 
how there was any Italy to unite in i860. As regards 
Lucignano itself, when the Imperialists got in, in 1553, they 
nailed a woman to the gate like a hawk for refusing to cry 
" Duca " and continuing to cry " Lupa." This may have been 
a Lucignano woman ; on the other hand, it may have been a 
Sienese. 

The Battle of Scanagallo 
Note 10^ page 217 

Somewhere in this valley, between Foiano and Marciano, 
in August, 1554, the battle was fought which made an end of 
the Sienese Republic and estabhshed, or rather made possible, 
the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, of which, in 1557, Siena came 
to form a part. 

It was in the January of that year that Cosimo de* Medici 
took the field with an army commanded by the Marquis of 
Marignano. On the 26th of that month Siena was invested. 
The Sienese general was Pietro Strozzi, a Florentine exile and 
a Marshal of France, whose father had died in a prison of 
the Medici. This fact doubtless embittered the campaign. 
With her usual bravery, Siena took the field, and after various 
skirmishes and fights the two armies faced each other on the 
heights above the torrent of Scanagallo. It was the 2nd of 
August, about eleven in the morning, and the sun very hot, 
when the battle broke. ** The Spanish men-at-arms advanced, 
and raising their visors as they passed the infantry, smiled 



332 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 

upon them with joyful faces, to show their good-will to give 
them victory, knowing well [says the historian] that in battle 
cavalry alone decide the day." The earth trembled beneath 
their tread, and they seemed, as writes an eye-witness of their 
charge, " a mountain of iron with plumes waving to heaven, a 
spectacle as gallant as it was beautiful." About Strozzi were 
gathered his fellow-citizens, exiles of Florence, while above 
them floated a green banner bearing for motto the line of 
Dante : " Liberia vo cercando cK e si caraP . . . 

" Like two mighty waves, black below, foam-topped above, 
the cavalry of either host hurled together. There was a 
thunder of rushing hoofs, a crash of steel, and lo ! with a 
shriek of treason and fear the French standard-bearer turned 
and fled. In a moment the splendid squadron divided, broke, 
and spurred hard out of the fray, bought (it was said) with 
Spanish gold — dodici fiaschi di stagno pieni di scudi d^ oro — 
a treachery and a flight which lives even to-day in the songs 
wherewith the contadini awake the echoes of that solitary 
country-side — 

" ' O Piero Strozzi in du' son i tuoi soldati 
Al Poggio delle Donne in que' fossati ; 
Meglio de' vili cavalli di Franza 
Le nostre donne feccro provanza.' 

"All was lost; but the Sienese were not minded to 
yield. . . . High on the Poggio delle Donne, Strozzi, clad in 
black armour inlaid with gold, mounted on an Arab charger 
and with his truncheon in his hand, played the part alike of 
general and soldier, and played them well. He spoke words 
of comfort to his infantry, declaring that the flight of the 
French was nothing but a ruse ; he bade the drummers and 
the pipers sound to battle ; all the banners waved as if for 
victory; and the Swiss charged down the hill shouting 
Francial Francial while from the hostile ranks arose the 
2ins\fQrmgcxyoi Spagna! Imperio! . . . It became a butchery 
pure and simple, and for two long miles, even to the gates of 
Lucignano, the ground was strewn with the banners, arms, 
and corpses of Strozzi's ruined army ; while he himself, with 



NOTES 333 

bullet wounds in the side and in the hand, and his head 
half crushed by a blow from a mace, scarcely escaped to 
Montalcino." 

So Mr. Heywood tells the tale (" Guide to Siena," pp. 124 
ei seq.). 

Note 11^ page 280 

The early condition of the Chiana swamp is brought 
picturesquely before us in the old custom of Chiusi, 
whose civic magistrate, with a. great number of heralds and 
trumpeters, was rowed across the swamp to the confines of 
Montepulciano, and in solemn ceremony, in sign of possession, 
flung a ring into the waters — desponsare clanas — precisely as 
the Doge of Venice did in the Festa of the Bucintoro. See 
F. Petrucci, " I confini Senesi di Val di Chiani " in 
Bullettino Senese, An ii (1895), P- 289, and W. Heywood, 
"History of Perugia" (Methuen, 1910), p. 224, n. 2, and 
authorities there cited. 



INDEX 



Abati, Bocca degli, at Montaperto, 

90 
Abbadia S. Salvatore, 180 

see S. Salvatore 
Abrotonia, 17 
Abruzzi, the, 164 
Accona, desert of, 181, 182 
Acerbo, Florentine Consul, 3 
Acquapendente, 252, 255, 265 
Adam, death of, 307 
Adimari, Forese di Buonaccorso, 2 
Adriatic, the, 298 
"^neid," 274 note 
iEside, 188 
Agnolo da Siena, his tomb of Guido 

Tarlati, 305, 313 
Agostino da Siena, his tomb of 

Guido Tarlati, 305, 313 
Operaio at Siena, no 
Alberti, the Conti, fall of, 3 

Feuds of, 2, 3 
Alberti, Count Alberto, joins the 

Tuscan League, 3 
Alberti, Count Guido, joins the 

Tuscan League, 3 
Alberti, Count Leon, 117 
Albertinelli, his Annunciation in 

Volterra, 46 
Albizzeschi, Bartolommeo, 162 
Albizzeschi, Diana, 161 
Albornoz at Cetona, 271 
Aldobrandeschi, the history of, 253 

note 
OfS. Fiora, 78, 253 
Of Sovana, 252 

Their struggle with Siena, 81, 82 
Aldobrandeschi, Aldobrandino, 

deserts Siena, 82 
Aldobrandeschi, Guglielmo, his 

compact with Pisa, 83 
Aldobrandini, M., at Colle, 55 



Alexander III, 79 
Consecrates a church in Siena, 

106 
Scenes from the life of, by Aretino, 

102 
Tomb of, 114 
Alexander V, proclaimed Pope, 284 
Alexander VII adds to the Duomo, 
Siena, in 
Monument of, 114 
America, Madonna by Lorenzetti in, 

Amerigo, Captain, 299 
" Ameto," 19, 21 
Amiens, cathedral of, 108 
" Amorosa Visione," 21 
Anagni, 146 
Ancisa (Incisa), 319 
Ancona, Pius II at, 117, 118 

S. Bernardino in, 164 
Andrea, Francesco di, his work in 

Siena, 321 
Andrew of Hungary, 21 
Angelico, Fra, 126,311 

His work in Cortona, 284-286 
Anglano, Giordano of, aids Siena, 

84, 90 
Antonio da Sangallo the younger, 

57 
Apollo, temple of, 106 
Apulia, retaken by Manfred, 84 
Aquarone, "Dante in Siena," 65 

note 
On the "Signorotti," 259 
On Tacco, 259 
Aquila, death of S. Bernardino at, 

164 
Aquino, Conte d', 18 
Aragazzi, Bartolommeo, tomb of, 

224 
Arbia, River, 53, 94, 172, 198, 330 



335 



336 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 



Ardenghi, the, 174 

Ardinghelli, the, 36 

Ardinghelli, Guido, fight for S. 
Gimignano, 28, 30 

Ardinghelli, Scolaio, 32 

Ardingo, Bishop, 2 

Aretine priests, 94 

Aretino, Parri, his work in Siena, 
102 

Aretino, Spinello, his work in 
Arezzo, 396, 313, 315 
His work in Siena, 102 

Arezzo, 145, 270, 319 
Aretino leaves for Siena, 102 
Allied with Siena, 84 
At war with Siena, 165, 199 
At war with Florence, 202 
Besieged by Florence, 303-305 
Defeated at Campaldino, 298-302 
Duomo of, 305, 312-314 
GhibelUnes in, 52, 277, 298, 304 
Guelfs in, 304 
History of, 297-306 
Holds Lucignano, 202 
Joins the Tuscan League, 3 
Makes war on Rapolano, 200 
Museo, 315 
Palazzo Pubblico, 314 
Quarrels with Siena, 77 
Romans in, 281 
Ruled by Florence, 305, 306 
SS. Annunziata, 314, 315 
S. Bernardo, 314, 315 
S. Francesco, 306, 311, 312 
S. Maria delle Grazie, 315 
S. Maria della Pieve, 314 
Situation of, 295, 297, 298 
Vasari's Logge, 314 
Via dell' Orto, 314 

Arezzo, Bishop of, 182, 233 
At Campaldino, 299-302 
Holds Forano, 213 
Seizes Poggio S. Cecilia, 329 
Warned by S. Margarita, 293 

Arezzo, Lorentino d', his work in 
Arezzo, 306 

Aringhieri, Alberto, by Pintoricchio, 

Arno, the River, 40, ^^d, 280 
Arnolfo, his work in Siena, 114 
Arte della Lana, S. Gimignano, 36 
Asciano, 81, 171 et seq.,2i<j^ 249, 250 
Besieged by Florence, 174 



Asciano — continued 

Castello of, 174, 175, 177 

Collegiata, 175 

History of, 174 

II Prato, 175 

S. Agata, 175-178 

S. Agostino, 176 

S. Francesco, 174-178 

Sassetta's work in, 165 

Situation of, 171-175, 178, 198, 

199 
Ascoli, cope at, 236 
Asinalunga, 259 

Ass, miracle of the, at Lecceto, 168 
Assisi, 30 

Charm of, 68 

Situation of, 297 

Upper Church of S. Francesco, 

195 
Athens, Duke of, expelled by 

Florence, 30 
Augustinians in Certaldo, 14 
Augustus, the Emperor, Siena 

under, 77 
Aurelian persecution, 275 A.D., 275 
Avignon, Beato Bernardo de' 
Tolomei in, 182 
Boccaccio in, 21, 24 
Popes in, 145 
S. Catherine in, 145 
Axe, miracle of the, 191 

Badia a Isola, 166 

History of, 66 

Pictures in, 67 
Badia Ardenga, 241 
Badia del Lago, 66 
Badia S. Galgano, 250 
Badia di S. Salvatore, 66, 250, 252, 
254, 265 

Decline of, 253 
Baedeker on Chiusi, 273 

On hotels, 244, 245 
Balducci, Matteo, his work in 
Cetona, 272 

His work in Siena, 126, 133 
Balsimelli da Settignano, his work 

in Volterra, 46 
Balzana of Siena, the, 95 
Balzetto, Bandino dei, 168, 169 
Banchi, L., " Le origini favolese di 
Siena," 321 

see Borghesi 



INDEX 



337 



Bandinelli, Orlando, see Alexander 

III 
Bandini-Piccolomini, F., "La Ma- 
donna di Provenzano," 136 
note 
Bardi, bank of the, 17 
Barna of Siena, his work in S. 
Gimignano, 33 
His work in Siena, 155, 156 
Baroncetti, Trebaldo, 29 
Bartoli, Bartolo, 204 
Bartolo, Domenico di, his work in 

Siena, 97, 112, 122, 158 
Bartolo, Taddeo di, his work in 
Asciano, 176 
His work in Badia a Isola, 67 
in Buonconvento, 243 
in S. Gimignano, 32, 33 
in Montepulciano, 224, 225 
in Siena, loi, 123, 132, 156, 

164, 166 
in Volterra, 46, 49 
Life of, 1 01 
School of, 158, 176 
Bartolommeo, Martino di, his work 
in Castiglione Fiorentino, 
296 
His work in Siena, 102 
Basle, Council of, 116, 117 
Baths of Vignone, 253 
BatHfolle, 98 
Beans, S. Verdiana's miracle of the, 

10 
Beccafumi, his work in Montalcino, 
268 
His work in Siena, 112, 114, 122, 
126, 127, 131 
Belcaro, see under Siena 
Bellanti, the, at Belcaro, 166 
Benedetto da Maiano, 34-37, 315 
Benedictines, Order of the, its foun- 
dation, 1 88 
Their Abbey of Poggiomarturi, 59 
of S. Eugenio, 166 
Benevento, battle of, 91 

Longobards in, 276 
Benincasa, Giacomo di, 141 
Benincasa di Laterina slain by 

Ghino di Tacco, 259, 260 
Benson, R. H., 120 
Benvenuto, Girolamo di, his work 
in Buonconvento, 243 
His work in Montalcino, 249 



Benvenuto, Girolamo di — continued 
His work in Montepulciano, 226 
in Siena, 159, 164 
in Torrita, 216 
Benvenuto da Imola, on Ghino di 

Tacco, 264 
Beppino, explains the miracle of the 

onions, 58-64 
Berardenghe, the, 176, 268 
Lords of Foiano, 213 
of Rapolano, 199, 201 
Berenson, B., 208, 211 

*' A Sienese Painter of the Fran- 
ciscan Legend," 175 note 
Ascriptions of, 133, 138, 153, 

250 
"Central Italian Paintings," 120 

note 
On Raffaele dei Carli, 48 
On Sassetta, 157 
On Sassetta's Birth of the Virgin, 

175 
Berlin, 115 

Duccio's work in, 120 
Bernini, 140 
Bethlehem, 72 
Bettolle, 214, 215, 280 
Bianchi, the, 29 
Bibbiano, 244 

Bibbiena seized by Florence, 302 
Bishop of Arezzo plots against, 
300 
Bichi, Margherita, prophesies the 
Sienese victory at Camollia, 
129 
Bishops, power of the, 78, 322-325 
Black Death, commemorated in S. 
Gimignano, 33 
In Siena, 1348, 21, 30, 96, no, 

183, 327, 328 
In Siena, 1374, 145 
In Siena, 1400, 122, 162 
Boccaccio di Chellino da Certaldo, 

16, 20 
Boccaccio, Francesco, 16 
Boccaccio, Giovanni, 27, 116 
Birth and early life of, 16, 17 
Critical study of, 15 note 
Death of, in Certaldo, 13, 15, 52 
His "conversion," 22-25 
His friendship with Petrarch, 

21-24 
His love for Fiammetta, 18-21 



338 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 



Boccaccio, Giovanni — continued 
Lectures on Dante, 25 
Memorials of, 14, 15 
On Dante in Siena, 93, 94 
On Ghino di Tacco, 207, 259, 

260-264 
Retires to Certaldo, 24, 25 
Tomb of, 14, 15 
Wanderings of, 21 
Works of, 20-22, 24 
Boccaccio, Jacopo, 14, 21 
Bologna, allied with Florence, 85 

Fights at Campaldino, 299 
Bolsena, Lago di, 266 
Bonfigli, pupil of, 225 
Boniface VIII reconciled to Tacco, 

260, 264 
Bonifazio, Padre, on S. Verdiana, 

9, II, 12 
Borghesi e Banchi, " Nuovi Docu- 

menti," 321 
Borghetto, 279 

Borgia, Cesare, takes Cetona, 271 
Borgonuovo, Castello of, 66 
Borgo San Sepolcro, Church of the 
Servi, 318 
Duomo of, 318 
Municipio, 316 
Situation of, 316 
Botticelli, 49 

School of, 6 
Bozzone, the, 90, 94, 330 
Braccio da Montone, takes Cetona, 

271 
Brandano, prophecy of, 137 
Bread, miracle of the, 61, 191 
Bregno, Andrea, his work in Siena, 

116 
Brennus, captain of the Senones, 77 
Bresciano da Milan, his work in 

Siena, 126 
Brudini, the, in Montalcino, 247 
*' Bullettino Senese," 67 note, 322, 

333 
Buonadonna, wife of S. Lucchese, 

60-63 
Buenaventura, Segna di, his work 

in Siena, 137 
Buonconvento, 255 
Church of the Misericordia, 243 
Death of Henry VII at, 29, 181, 

320 
History of, 240 



Buonconvento — continued 
Inn of, 241-243 
Its former importance, 172, 239, 

241 
Opera di SS. Pietro e Paolo, 

243 
Palazzi of, 243 

Situation of, 171, 198, 237, 238 
Buonsignori, Francesco, 129 
Byron, Lord, on Boccaccio's tomb, 

14, IS 
Byzantine influence in Siena, 72, 
151, 153 

Caccia d'Asciano, Dante's reference 

to, 174 
Cacciaconti, the, 174 
Cacciaguerra, the, 174 
Calabria, Duke of, 99 
Calixtus II, Pope, consecrates the 

Duomo in Volterra, 45 
Calixtus III, 118 

Death of, 116 
Calmeta, Boccaccio's studies with, 

17 
Camaldolese, the, 182 
Cambio, Arnolfo di, house of, 57 
Camollia, battle of, 114, 129, 130 
Campalboli, 175, 178 
Campaldino, battle of, 202, 277, 

298-302 
Campiglia d' Orcia, 91, 223 

Seized by Siena, 83 
Camporbiano, destruction of, 30 
Camporegi, 85 
Camucia, 281 
Canestrelli, A., on S. Antimo, 

250 
" Siena Monumentale, " ^'j note 
Capraja, 69, 162 
Capraja, Contessa Beatrice di, 6 
Capranica, Cardinal, 117 
Capriola, 16 1, 162 
Capua, 19 
Carli, Raffaele dei, his work in 

Montepulciano, 227 
His work in Volterra, 48 
Carthage, 40 
Casentino, the, 298, 299, 315 

Dante in the, 240 
Castellazzara, 265 
Castellina, 6^ 
Castello della Selva, 28 



INDEX 



339 



Castel-Fiorentino, 51, 248 

Besieged by Henry III, 320 

Castello of, i, 3, 5, 8, 13 

Collegiata S. Lorenzo, 5, 8 

Ghibellines in, 4 

History of, 2, 4, 319, 320 

Inn of, 245 

Patron saint of, 1 1 

S. Biagio, 5, 8 

S. Chiara, i, 5, 6 

S. Francesco, i, 5, 6 

S. Ippolito, 3, 5 

S. Verdiana, i, 5, 6, ii 

Situation of, i, 4, 13 

Tuscan League meets at, 3 

Wooden statues in, 47 
Castelnuovo, 8 
Castel S. Gimignano, 39 
Castel Vecchio, 77, 124 

Duomo of, 106 
Castiglione di Chiusi, 277 
Castiglione Fiorentino, 267 

Collegiata, 295 

Pinacoteca, 296 

S. Francesco, 296 

Situation of, 295 
Castiglione d' Orcia, situation of, 
252-254 

Churches of, 254 
Castiglione del Lago di Trasimeno, 

277, 279 
Castile compared with Tuscany, 

179, 230 
Castracane, Castruccio, 268, 304 
Catiline at Arezzo, 297 
Cato, influence of, 162 
Cattani, the, 323 

Caxton, William, his translation of 
the legend of the Holy 
Cross, 307 
Cecca, 144 
Cecchi, Giovanni, 36 
Ceccolini, the Sienese drummer, 125 
Celestine III, by Bartoli, 122 
Celle, 265 

Cellole, lepers of, 36 
Cenni, Cenno di Ser Francesco, 

frescoes by, 6 
Centoia, 279 

Cerchi, company of the, 300 
Cerchi, Pieri de', 301 
Certaldo, 51 

Casa di Boccaccio, 13, 15, 24 



Certaldo — continued 
Castello of, 13, 14 
Feud of the Conti Alberti, 3, 4, 

Memorials of Boccaccio in, 14, 
15, 26 

Palazzo Pubblico, 13, 14 

S. Andrea, 14 

SS. Jacopo and Filippo, 14, 15 

Situation of, 13, 16, 25 
Certomondo, 300 
Cervara, Counts of, hold Cetona, 

271 
Cetona, 165 

Churches of, 272 

History of, 270, 27 1 

Palazzo Terrosi, 272 

Rocca of, 270, 271 

Seized by the Manenti, 268 

Situation of, 267, 270, 278, 287 
Charlemagne, 27, 276 

Death of, 322 
Charles IV establishes a vicar in 

Chiusi, 277 
Charles V, 73 

At Monte Oliveto, 183 

Proceeds against Siena, 114, 247 
Charles of Anjou, King, 166, 320 

In Rome, 268 
Charles of Naples, at war with 

Siena, 53-56 
Chartres, fa9ade of, 106, 108 
Chiana range, the, 75 

see Val di Chiana 
Chianti hills, the, 202 
Chigi, Fabio, see Alexander VII 
Chiusi, Duomo of S. Mustiola, 

275, 277 
Duomo of S. Secondiano, 277 
Etruscan museum at, 273, 278 

Tombs at, 273 
Fall of, 276 
History of, 275-278 
Lake of, 218 
Leone d' Oro, 273 
Origin of, 270, 274 
Overcomes Arezzo, 298 
Road to, 259, 267, 272 
S. Francesco, 278 
Situation of, 171, 198, 267, 270, 

272 
Taken by Arezzo, 304 
Weds the Val di Chiana, 333 



340 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 



Chiusura, taken by Siena, 303 
Churching a woman, Castel- 

Fiorentino, 7 
Ciani, Gioacchino, 22 
Ciardi, Fina de', see S. Fina 
Cicero pleads for Arezzo, 297 
Cimabue, his work in Florence, 149 

School of, 132 
Cini, Lorenzo, his work in Siena, 

129 
Cinquecento, work of the, in Siena, 

126, 148, 158 
Cioli, Raffaele, 45 
Cioni, M., on Castel-Fiorentino, 

319, 320 

"Cities of Umbria," by Edward 

Hutton, 294 note 
Citta della Pieve, 267, 270, 272 
Citta di Castello, taken by Guido 

Tarlati, 304 
Civitella, 300 

Seized by Florence, 303 
Clement VII attempts to annex 
Siena, 130 
Elected Pope, 146 
Clement VIII, 208 
Cligni, Abbot of, cured by Tacco, 

261-264 
Clusium, Lars Porsena of, 218, 274 

see Chiusi 
Colle, 39, 319 

Allied with Florence, 52, 54 
Battle of, 28, 54-56, 58, 80, 91, 

320, 321, 326-9 
Fights at Campaldino, 299 
Ghibellines in, 53 

Inn of, 58 

Paintings and frescoes in, 57 

Situation of, 51 
Colombajo, 162 
Colonna, Tisbo, 322 
Commune, birth of the, 79, 322- 

325 
Compagnia del Capello, 208, 216 
"Conferenze," 322 
Constantine, Emperor, his vision of 

the Holy Cross, 308 
Constantinople, 117, 119, 153 
Corbignano, Boccaccino's house in, 

16 
Corradino, 53 
Death of, 91 
Corrado, Bishop of Spira, 66 



Correggio, his work at Palma, 223 
Corsignano, 231-3 

see Pienza 
Corsino, Caterino, 102 
Cortona, Church of II Gesu, 285 
Duomo of S. Mary, 284, 285 
Fra Angelico in, 284 
Palazzo Pretorio, 284 
Pietro da, see Pietro 
Pliny on, 281 
Porta Colonia, 283, 286 
S. Agostino, 295 
S. Domenico, 282, 283 
S. Agostino, 284 
S. Basilio, 294 
S. Domenico, 283, 284, 286 
S. Francesco, 291, 294 
S. Margarita, 285-287 
S. Niccol6, 286 

Situation of, 180, 201, 212, 267, 
274, 275, 279-283 
Cortona, Spedale di S. Maria della 
Misericordia, 293 
Vescovado, 294 
Corythus, 282 

Cosdroe, King of the Persians, 
honours the Holy Cross, 
310, 311 
Cosimo I, Grand Duke of Tuscany, 

dominion of, 59, 271, 277 
** Country Walks about Florence," 
by Edward Hutton, 160 note 
" Country Walks about Siena," by 

Edward Hutton, 160 note 
Counts, rule of, 323 
Courcy, Enguerrand de, 305 
Cozzarelli, his work in Pitigliano, 
252 
His work in Rapolano, 200 
in Siena, 102, 112, 121, 122, 

149, 159, 165 
in Torrita, 216 
Credi, Lorenzo di, his work in 

Castiglione Fiorentino, 295 
Cristofano, Giovanni di, his work in 

Siena, 321 
Crowe and Cavalcaselle, see " New 
History of Painting in Italy " 
Crucifix, in Castel-Fiorentino, 6 
Cust, R. Hobart, '* Giovann 
Antonio Bazzi," 187 note 
" The Pavement Masters of 
Siena," 112 note 



INDEX 



341 



Cuthbert, Father, "A Tuscan 
Penitent," 287 note, 290, 
292 note, 293 

Cyrella, 188 

Daniele da Volterra, 45 

Dante Alighieri, 91, 316 
Beatrice, daughter of, 21 
Boccaccio the first defender of, 

13. 24, 25 
His love for Beatrice, 19 
His reference to Caccia d'Asciano, 

174 
In S. Gimignano, 26, 29, 31, 32 
In Siena, 93, 94 
Landscape of the Inferno, 179 
Misunderstands the birth of Na- 
tionalism, 52 
On Ghino di Tacco, 258 
On his emperor, Henry VII, 240 
On Monteriggioni, 65 
On the passing of Luni, Urbi- 
saglia, Chiusi, and Sinigaglia, 
276 
On the Tuscan League, 328 
On the Val di Chiana, 280 
Welcomes Henry VII into Italy, 

319 
** Dante in Siena," 65 note 
Danube, the River, 308, 310 
Dardanus, 282 
David, 236 

*• Decameron, The," 21, 30 
Story of Ghino di Tacco in, 207, 

260 
" De Casibus Virorum Illustrium," 

24 
*• De Claris Mulieribus," 24 
" De Genealogiis Deorum Gen- 

tilium," 24 
"De Montibus, Sylvis, Lacubus," 

24 
Dei, Andrea, on Duccio's Majestas, 

119 
On Monteriggioni, 65 
On Rapolano, 200 
On the siege of Poggio S. Cecilia, 

330 
Delia Robbian ware in Radicofani 

and S. Fiora, 256 
see Robbia 
Delia Torre on Boccaccio, 16 
Democracy in Siena, 326-329 



Dennis on Cortona, 281-283 

On the Etruscan League, 274 
Desiderius, King of the Longobards, 

255 
Devil, the, ambiguous prophecy by, 
55 
Troubles S. Benedict, 190 
Diana, Well of, 127 
" Divine Comedy," 24, 30 
Dominicans in Siena, 140 
Domenico, Alunno di, his work in 

Arezzo, 315 
Domenico da Leccio, Fra, com- 
missions Sodoma, 186 
Domenico, Pietro di, his work in 
Asciano, 177 
His work in Buonconvento, 243 
in Colle, 57 
Donatello, 223 

His work in Siena, 115, 121 
Donati, Corso, at Campaldino, 301, 
302 
Death of, 304 
Douglas, R. Langton, his ascription 
of a Sienese Annunciation, 
138 
*' History of Siena," 77, ill, 247 

notes, 325 
On the dispersal of the monks 
from Fiesole, 284 note 
Duccio di Buoninsegna, founder of 
the Sienese school, 149-153 
His work in Siena, 71, 73, 114, 
118-121, 123, 125, 153, 154, 
166 
Life of, 118 
School of, 8, 67 

Elba, 49, 223 

Eleonora of Portugal, liy 

Elias, Frate, in Cortona, 282, 284, 

294 
Elsa, the River, i, 2 

see Val d'Elsa 
Empire, Holy Roman, Bishops' 

allegiance to, 78 
Empoli, 180 
Empoli, Council at, 91 

Farina ta degli Uberti at, 53 
England, landscape of, 230 
" Ensamples of Fra Filippo," by 

William Hey wood, 168, 241, 

256 



342 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 



Esse, the River, 212 

Etruscan art, latest period of, 44 

League, 40, 274 

Tombs at Chiusi, 273 
Etruscans, the, in Volterra, work 

of, 43 
Eugenius III shares Radicofani, 254 
Eugenius IV, 67, 117, 166 

Offers bishopric to S. Bema- 
dino, 163 
Euphrosyne, 142 

Fabriano, Gentile da, 296 

Fanum, 213 

Fecini, Tommaso, on the Black 

Death in Siena, 183 
Federighi, Antonio, his work in 

Siena, 96, 112, 115 134, 139, 

149 
Fei, Paoli di Giovanni, his school, 

158, 227 
His work in Asciano, 176 
in Siena, 123, 125, 157 
Felici, Cristoforo, tomb of, 137 
Ferdinand© I, Grand Duke, at 

Sinalunga, 208 
Fermo, Bishop of, 116 
Ferrante of Naples, 321 
Ferrara, Bishopric of, 163 
Feudalism, rise of, 78, 322 
Fiammetta, Boccaccio's love for, 13, 

18-20 
Death of, 21 
Fiesole, 16, 283 

S. Domenico, 284 
Filippo, Fra, on a miracle of 

Lecceto, 168 
On the usurer of Radicofani, 256, 

258 
" Filocolo, The," 17, 18, 20 
" Filostrato, The," 20 
Flora, the, 252 
Fiorentino, Pier Francesco, his work 

in Colle, 57 
His work in S. Gimignano, 33, 37 
in Siena, 133 
Fiorentino, Rosso, his work in 

Arezzo, 315 
**Fioretti"ofS. Francis, 167 
Fivizzano, inn of, 245 
Flaminius, 281 

Florence, 13, 28, 29, 38, 172, 270 
Appeals to S. Catherine, 145, 146 



Florence — continued 
Aretino in, 102 

At peace with Siena, 1255, 84 
At war with Arezzo, 202, 298- 
302 
with Pisa, 82, 83 
with Siena, 64, 66, 80, 82-83, 
219-221, 326, 329 
Baptistery of, 115 
Besieged by Henry VII, 59, 240, 

319 
Besieges Arezzo, 303, 304, 305 

Asciano, 174 

Monteriggioni, 65, 66 

Poggio S. Cecilia, 329 
Boccaccio in, 16, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25 
Buys Lucignano, 203 
Captures of, after Campaldino, 303 
Claims Talamone, 83, 84 
Compared with Siena, 68, 69, 76 
Cursed by Dante, 240 
Defeated at Camollia, 130 

at Montaperto, 4, 28, 53, 85-92 

at Montecatini, 29 

at Poggio Imperiale, 99 
Defeats Siena at Colle, 80, 91, 92 
Destroys Poggibonsi, 58, 65, 320 
Duomo of, 109 
Exercises sway over S. Gimignano 

29, 30 
Expels the Ghibellines, 84 
Fall of, 29 

Foreign domination of, 69 
Forms the Tuscan League, 3, 4 
Giotto's Madonna, 6 

Tower, 96 
Guelfs in, 52, 53 
Her hold on Arezzo, 298, 505 

on Foiano, 213 
Her rule in the contado^ 330 
Influence of, in Castel-Fiorentino, 
I, 2 

on Colle, Poggibonsi, and 
Staggia, 51-56 
Neri and Branchi in, 29 
Palazzo Vecchio, 48 
Piazza del Duomo, 104 
Piazza Signoria, 93 
S. Croce, 5,47, in, 137, 177 
S. Maria Novella, 119 
Seizes Bibbiena, 302 

Rapolano, 199 

Semifonte, 81 



INDEX 



343 



Florence — continued 
Situation of, 150, 297 
Subdues Volterra, 41 
University of, 21 
Water supply of, 76 
Florence, Bishop of, ruler of Castel- 
Fiorentino, i, 2 
Visits S. Verdiana, 1 1 
Florentine School of painting con- 
trasted with the Sienese, 149- 

153 

Founder of the, 149 
In Siena, 126 
In Volterra, 48 
Florentius tempts S. Benedict, 191, 

192, 195 
Foiano, 331 
Collegiata, 213 
History of, 213 
Situation of, 212 
Folgore, his hatred of the Ghibel- 

lines, 29 
Foligno, 284 
Inn of, 245 
Fonte, Fra Tommaso della, 142 
Fonte Gaia, 94 
Forli, Boccaccio in, 21 
** Fra Angelico," by Langton 

Douglas, 284, note 
France, armies of, in Italy, 4 
Francesco, Cenni di, his frescoes in 

Volterra, 47 
Francesco, Giovanni di, his work in 

Arezzo, 313 
Francesco, Piero della, his work in 
Arezzo, 306-313, 315 
His work in Borgo San Sepolcro, 
316-318 
Francesco, Signorelli the pupil of, 

313, 317 
Franzesi di Staggia, Ava dei, 66, 67 
Franzesi di Staggia, Ildebrando dei, 

66 
Franzesi di Staggia, Tegrimo and 

Benzo dei, 66 
Fratta, 264 
Frederic I confirms feud of Castel- 

Fiorentino, 2 
Frederic II, 28, 66 
Children of, 84 
Death of, 83 
Siena allied to, 79, 82 
Visits Siena, 83 



Frederic III, Cardinal Piccolomini 
attached to court of, 116, 
117 
Frederick Barbarossa, Venetian 

campaign against, 102 
Fredi, Bartolo di, his work in 
Arezzo, 315 
His work in Castiglione, 254 
in Lucignano, 205 
in Montalcino, 248, 249 
in Montepulciano, 226 
in Pienza, 236, 237 
in S. Gimignano, 33 
in Siena, 96, 155, 156 
in Torrita, 216 
School of, lOi, 139, 156 
Fungai, his work in Chiusi, 277 
His work in II Monistero, 166 
in Lucignano, 205 
in Siena, 123, 127, 131-133, 
139, 141 
Pupils of, 210 

Gabella, Tavolette di, 321 
Gaddi, Taddeo, Madonna of, 6 
Gallerani, Beato Andrea, 97 
Gardner, E. G., "St. Catherine of 
Siena," 142 note 
'* Story of Siena," 77 note 
Gatta, Bartolommeo della, his work 
in Arezzo, 314, 3^5 
His work in Castiglione Fioren- 
tino, 295, 296 
in Cortona, 284 
Genga, Girolamo, his work in Mon- 
talcino, 248 
Genoa allied with Florence, 84 

Taddeo Bartoli in, loi 
German armies in Italy, 4, 85, 90 

note, 91 
Germany, feudal union with Italy, 

240 
Ghibellines, the, cities allied to, 52 
Expelled by Florence, 84 
Fall of, 53, 91 
In Arezzo, 298, 304 
In Castel-Fiorentino, 4 
In Siena, 79, 84, 327-330 
In S. Gimignano, 25 
Routed at Campaldino, 302 
Their position on the death of 

Frederic II, 83 
Triumph at Montaperto, 91 



344 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 



Ghiberti, Lorenzo, his work in 

Siena, 121 
Ghirlandajo, Domenico, 37 

His S. Fina, 35 

His work in Volterra, 48 

School of, 6, 12, 35, 36, 126 
Ghirlandajo, Ridolfo, his Pieta in 

CoUe, 57 
Giambertaldo, fights at Colle, 54, 

55 
Gianna, mother of Boccaccio, 16 
Gigli, on Tacco, 259, 260 
Gioiella, 279 

Giorgio, Francesco di, his work in 
Montalcino, 250 
His work in II Monistero, 166 
at Monte Oliveto, 196 
in Siena, 112, 114, 140, 149, 
158 
Giotto, 49, 185, 314 

Crucifixion of S. Peter, 5 
Founder of the Florentine School, 

149-153 . 
His influence in Siena, 154 
His work in Padua, 195 
His tower in Florence, 96 
Madonna of, in Florence, 6 
School of, 6, 102 
Giovanna of Naples, Queen, 21, 24 
Giovanni, Agostino di, his work in 

Siena, 96 
"Giovanni Antonio Bazzi," by 

R. H. Gust, 187 note 
Giovanni, d' Asciano, his work in 

Asciano, 177 
Giovanni, Benvenuto di, his work 
in Asciano, 249 
His work in S. Gimigriano, 33 
in Cetona, 272 
in II Monistero, 166 
in Montepulciano, 227 
in Sarteano, 269 
in Siena, 112, 123, 138, 140, 

159 
in Sinalunga, 211, 212 
in Torrita, 216 
in Volterra, 46, 47, 48 
" Giovanni Boccaccio," 15 note 
Giovanni, Fra, see Angelico 
Giovanni, Matteo di, his work in 
Asciano, 176 
His work in Belcaro, 167 
in Borgo San Sepolcro, 318 



Giovanni, Matteo di — continued 
His work in Buonconvento, 243 
in Pienza, 235, 237 
in Siena, 112, 128, 132, 138- 

140, 159 
Pupils of, 269 
Giovanni, Pietro di, his work in 

Lucignano, 205 
His work in Siena, 164 
Giovanni da Verona, Fra, 196 
Girolamo, Benvenuto di, his work 

in Campalboli, 178 
Guidoriccio da Fogliano, by Simone 

Martini, 154 
Giuliano da Maiano, his work in S. 

Gimignano, 33-37 
Giunta, Fra, his account of Mar- 
garita, 290-294 
Glastonbury, 184 

Holy Thorn of, 273 
Gothic Architecture, rise of, 108 
Goths, the, in Chiusi, 276 
Gozzoli, Benozzo, frescoes by, near 

Castelnuovo, 8 
His work in S. Gimignano, 32, 

33. 36, 37 
in Volterra, 45 
Granacci, work of, in Castel-Fioren- 

tino, 6 
Gregory, Pope, "Dialogues," 185 
Portrait of, by Benvenuto di 

Giovanni, 123 
S. Catherine counsels, 146 
Tomb of, 313 
Grosseto, 165, 239, 250, 251 note 
Rebels against Siena, 84 
Seized by Siena, 82, 94 
Situation of, 139 
Guelfs, the, cities adhering to, 52 
Defeat of the, 53 
In Chiusi, 277 
In Rapolano, 200 
In S. Gimignano, 28 
In Siena, 327, 328, 329 
Guelf League, 166, 268 

Dante an ambassador of the, 29 
" Guide to Siena," by W. Heywood 
and L. Olcott, 77 note, 88 
note, 124 note, 325, 330, 333 
Guidi, Conti, at Arezzo, 298 
Guido da Siena, his work in Siena, 
98 
His Madonna, 1221, 149 



INDEX 



345 



Guidoriccio da Fogliano, portrait of, 

98 
Guilds, military uses of, 324 

Hadrian, Emperor, 309 

Hannibal in the Val di Chiana, 

281 
Hare, Augustus, on Pienza, 232 
Henry HI of England, 107 
Henry VH at Poggio Imperiale, 

29, 59 
Besieges Florence, 319 
Crowned by Guido Tarlati, 304 
His death at Buonconvento, 29, 

181, 240, 241 
His invasion of Italy, 91, 240, 

241, 304, 319, 320, 328 
Heraclius, Emperor, honours the 

Holy Cross, 306, 310, 311 
Hey wood, William, "A Pictorial 

Chronicle of Siena," 97 note, 

321 
" Ensamples of Fra Filippo," 241 
" Guide to Siena," 88 note, 325, 

330, 333 
*' History of Perugia," 203 note, 

333 

His notes to " In Unknown Tus- 
cany," 253 note 

On the battle of Scanagallo, 331- 

333 
On the Madonna del Voto, 112, 

136 
On the Perugians in Arezzo, 

305 
On Poggio S. Cecilia, 330 
On Siena, 77 note 
«' Palio and Ponte," 85 note, 113 
note 
'* History of Perugia," by William 

Heywood, 203 note, 333 
*' History of Siena," by L. Douglas, 

77, III note, 247 note, 325 
Hohenstaufen family, the, 91, 238 
Holy Cross, legend of the, 306-311 
Homer, Boccaccio's Latin version 

of, 13, 22 
Honorius II, by Lorenzetti, 137 
Horatius, 274 

Hutton, Edward, " Cities of 
Umbria," 294 note 
♦ ' Country Walks about Florence," 
160 note 



Hutton, Edward — continued 

Editor of "New History of 

Painting in Italy," q.v. 
"Giovanni Boccaccio," 15 note 
" In Unknown Tuscany," 253 

note 
"Italy and the Italians," 188 

note 

*'I1 Corbaccio," 22 

lie de France, 108 

II Martirio, 173 

11 Mattaccio, see Sodoma 

II Sodo, 295 

Imola, Benvenuto da, on Tacco, 

264, 265 
"Inferno," Caccia d'Asciano in, 

174 
Landscape of, 179 
Monteriggioni in, 65 
Val di Chiana in, 280 note 
Innocent III, death of, 84 

Gives Chiusi to Perugia, 277 
Innocent VI, 21, 24 
"In Unknown Tuscany," by Ed- 
ward Hutton, 253 note 
Italian Architecture, compared with 

Gothic, 107-109 
Italian -Government, its vandalism, 
181, 184, 197, 221 
Origins of, 322-325 
Italy, its feudal union with Ger- 
many, 240 
"Italy and the Italians," by Ed- 
ward Hutton, 188 note 
Ivory figures of the thirteenth cen- 
tury, 7 

James I of Scotland, 117 

Japan, art of, 151 

Jews burnt in Siena, 1799, 94 

Joachim, 72 

Joanne, Guides de, 244 

John of Salisbury, on Siena, 77 

Julius Csesar at Arezzo, 297 

Karnak, temples of, 41 

La Castellina, 212 
Lago di Bolsena, 266 
Lago Piano Sanguinoso, 281 
Lago di Trasimeno, 279 



346 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 



Landi, Neroccio di, see Neroccio 
Landscape of Tuscany, 229 
Lanzani, on the power of bishops, 

322 
Lappolli of Arezzo, his work in 

Montepulciano, 226 
Lars Porsenna of Clusium, 218, 

274 
Lassells, Richard, on Poggibonsi, 

321 
on Radicofani, 255 
Laterina, destroyed by Guido Tar- 

lati, 304 
Seized by Florence, 303 
Laterina, Benincasa di, 259, 260 
Latium, 60 
Laviano, birthplace of S. Margarita, 

279, 287, 291 
Le Baize, precipice of, 43 
Lecceto, see under Siena 
Lenzioni, Contessa, 15 
Leopardi, on Tuscany, 244 
"Lex Julia," the, ']^ 
Lily of the Valleys, see S. Margarita 
Lippi, FiUppino, his " Annuncia- 
tion," 33 
Pupil of, 226, 227 
Lippi, Fra Lippo, 69 
Lombard Architecture, 8 
Lombards, the, Volterra under, 40 
Lombardy, plains of, 108, 109 
London, height of buildings in, 

108 
Longfellow, H. W., his version of 

Dante, 276 
Longobards, Desiderius, King of 

the, 255 
Kings, in Chiusi, 275, 276 
Rotharis, King of the, '^^ 
Lorenzetti, Ambrogio, his work in 

Campalboli, 178 
His work at Serre, 200 
in Siena, 71, 99-101, 103, 121, 

137. I54» 155, 166, 328 
School of, 170 

Lorenzetti, Pietro, his work in 
Arezzo, 314 
His work in Castiglione, 254 
in Cortona, 285 
in II Martirio, 173 
in Siena, 71, 121, 132, 137, 

138, 154, 155 
in Rapolano, 200 



Lorenzo, Bicci di, his work in 

Montepulciano, 227 

Lorenzo, Fra, of the Osservanti, 6-8 

Lucari, Buonaguida, chosen Syndic 

of Siena, before Montaperto, 

86-88, 113, 114, 129 

Lucca, 29, 247 

Allied with Florence, 84 
Duomo of, III, 251 
Fights at Campaldino, 299-302 
Guelf sympathies of, 52, 329 
Guelfs expelled from, 91 
Joins the Tuscan League, 3 
Lucignano, 332 

Held by Siena, 202-204, 215, 

303 
History of, 202-205, 269, 270 
S. Francesco, 202, 205 
Situation of, 198, 201, 204, 206, 

215 
Taken by Arezzo, 304 
Taken by the Austro-Spanish 
troops, 205, 331 
Ludwig of Brandenburg, 2 1 
Luna, held by Volterra, 40 
Luni, 276 

Lusini, V., **Bulletino Senese," 67 
note 

Macaulay, Lord, inaccuracies of, 

275 
*' Lays of Ancient Rome," 274 

Machiavelli, Nicolo, 131 
Mediates with Siena, 220 

Machiavelli, Zanobi, work attri- 
buted to, 47 

Maffei, Raffaele, 46 

Maghinardo of Susinana, at Cam- 
paldino, 299 

Magione, 267 

Maiano, Benedetto da, his work in 
S. Gimignano, 34-37. 3^5 . 

Maiano, Giuliano da, his work in 
S. Gimignano, 33-37 

Mainardi, his work in S. Gimignano, 

33» 35-37 
His work in Siena, 126 
Maitano, Lorenzo del, designs the 

fa9ade of Orvieto, 106, no, 

III, 148 
His plan for the Duomo of Siena, 

no 
His work in Siena, 148 



INDEX 



347 



Malatesta, Carlo, defeated by 

Braccio da Montone, 271 
Malatesta, Sigismondo, burnt in 

effigy, 117 
Malavolti, Maghinardo, 28 

On the Duomo of Siena, 106 
Manciano, 252 
Manenti, the, 174 

Hold Sarteano, 268 
Manenti, Contestabile, 268 
Manenti, Manfredi, 268 
Manfred, allied with Siena, 84-91 

Death of, 53, 54, 91, 220 

Recovers Apulia, 84 

Troops of, 270 
Mangone, feud of the Alberti, 

3>4 
Mantua, congress at, 118 
Marca, the, 6 
Marche, barons of the, 117 
Marciano, 331 
Marcovaldo, Coppo di, his work in 

Siena, 132 
Maremma, the, 61, 172, 281, 304 
Destroys Volterra, 40 
Florence incites to revolt, 84 
Situation of, 75, 229 
Towns of, 251 note 
Marescotti, the, at Belcaro, 166 
Margaritone of Arezzo, his work in 

Arezzo, 315 
Marignano, Marchese di, at Scana- 
gallo, 331 
Takes Monteriggioni, 66 
Marinaria, 291, 292 
Marius, 297 
Martin V, 224 

Silences S. Bernardino, 163 
Martini, Simone, 96, 311 
His work in Assisi, 195 
in Florence, 138, 152 
in Siena, 71, 73, 97, 98, 128, 

154 
School of, 154, 155 
Martoli, Margherita di Gian Donato 

de', 16 
Masaccio, 153 
Masplino, 153 
Massa Marittima, 161, 162 
Massarelli, Angelo, 214 
Medici, Cosimo de', defeats Siena 

at Scanagallo, 331 
Holds Foiano, 213 



Medici, Cosimo de' — continued 
Holds Montalcino, 247 
Montepulciano, 221 
Sarteano, 269 
Sinalunga, 208 
Siezes Asciano, 174 
Siena, 92, 95, 114 
Medici, Lorenzo de', 117 
His gift to Volterra, 48 
Melano, Operaio at Siena, 107 
Meloria, battle of, 329 
Memmi, Lippo, his work in 
Asciano, 177 
His work in Castiglione, 254 
in S. Gimignano, 32 
in Siena, 96, 132, 155 
School of, 14, 155, 156 
Michelangelo Buonarotti, his work 

in Siena, 116 
Michelozzo, his work in Monte- 
pulciano, 223, 224 
Milan, Boccaccio in, 22 
Duomo of, 109 
Defeated by Siena, 99 
S. Augustine in, 37 
S. Bernardino in, 163 
the Visconti of, see Visconti 
Milanese School of Painting in 

Siena, 126 
Minerva, Temple of, 106 
Mino da Fiesole, his work in 

Volterra, 45, 46 
Mino, Giacomo di, 1 1 1 
" Miscellanea Storica Sanese," 85 

note 
' ' Miscellanea Storica della Val- 

delsa," 319, 321 
Missals in Chiusi, 277, 278 
Monaceschi, Tacco, 259 
Monasteries in Italy, suppression of, 

181, 184 
Montajone, 15 
Montalcino, 223 
Castello of, 249 
Chapel of the Sacro Sacramento, 

248 
Convent of Osservanti, 249 
History of, 246 
Inn of the Lily, 237, 244-246 
Its beautiful women, 244 
Last stand of the Sienese Re- 
public in, 247, 250, 271 
Palazzo Pubblico, 249 



348 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 



Montalcino — continued 
S. Agostino, 248 
S. Croce, 248 
S. Francesco, 248 
Seized by Florence, 81, 83 
by Siena, 81, 85, 91, 94 
Situation of, 171, 229, 244, 246, 

Strozzi escapes to, 333 
Montalto, battle of, 82 
Mont' Amiata, 72, 81 et passim 

Mines of, 180 

Outline of, 180 

Situation of, 171, 179 

Station of, 250 

Sunset over, 229-231 

Montaperto, battle of, 4, 28, 53, 55 

note, 56, 65, 73, 81, 85-92, 

94, 112, 113, 125, 129, 153, 

166, 200, 202, 220, 253, 326 

Battlefield of, 172, 173 

Henry VII at, 320 
Monte al Pruno, 299 
Monte Cassino, 187 

Destruction of, 193 

S. Benedict at, 192 
Montecatini, battle of, 29 
Montecchio, 295 

Seized by Florence, 303 
Monte Cetona, 210, 218, 219, 229 

252, 259, 265, 267, 272 
Monte Cimino, 180, 266 
Monte Civitella, 265 
Montefalco, Benozzo Gozzoli's work 
at, 37 

S. Chiara of, 37 
Montefiascone, 266 
Monte FoUonica, 218, 223, 230 
Monte Maggio, 66 
Monte Maggiore, 316 
Montemassi, siege of, 98 
Monte Morello, 165 
Monte Oliveto, 199 

Abbey of, 180-197 

Library of, 196 

Situation of, 178 
Montepulciano, Duomo of, 222, 
224, 225 

Florentine work in, 224 

History of, 218-221, 246 

Lake of, 218 

Loggia del Mercato, 222 

Marzocco in, 222 



Montepulciano — contintied 
Palazzi of, 222 
Pinacoteca, 225-227 
Porta del Prato, 222 
S. Agostino, 222, 223 
S. Biagio, 227 
S. Lucia, 225 

S. Margarita in, 287, 288, 291 
S. Maria della Consolazione, 222, 

223, 227 
Situation of, 171, 180, 199, 215, 
218, 221, 223, 229, 254, 
267 
Strife between Florence and Siena 

for, 81-83, 91 
Taddeo Bartoli in, loi 
Monteriggioni, history of, 65 
Montesansavino, 303 
Monte Soracte, 266 
Monte Venere, 180, 266 
Montfort, Guido di, destroys Poggi- 

bonsi, 166, 320 
Monticchiello, siege of, 331 
Monti Pisani, 180 
Montluc on the end of the Sienese 

Republic, 247 
Morello, Guido, recovers Cetona, 

270 
" Morgante," by Pulci, 280 
Mugello, S. Lorenzo, 2 
Muntz, Eugene, 187 
Murray's Guides, 244 

Naples, 23, 54, 91 

Boccaccio in, 16-21, 24 
Henry III starts for, 240 320 

Naples, King of, 99 

Napoleon, his Tree of Liberty, 

94 
Narda, Jacopo della, killed at Monta- 
perto, 90 
Narni, 325 

Inn of, 245 
National Gallery, London, Duccio's 
work in, 120 
Assumption by Matteo di Gio- 
vanni in, 159, 318 
Nationalism, birth of, 52 
Negro, Abbate di, 184 
Nerbona, 301 
Neri, the, 29 

Neri, Paolo di Maestro, his work at 
Lecceto, 169 



INDEX 



349 



Neroccio, his work in Rapolano, 2cxd 

His work in Siena, 102, 112, 115, 

121, 126, 133, 141, 149, 158, 

159 
School of, 269 
** New History of Painting in Italy," 

by Crowe and Cavalcaselle 

(ed. Edward Hutton), 64, 

118, 120, 138 notes 
" Newton" on a pillar in Tuscany, 

230 
Niccol6, Andrea di, Duomo of 

Vol terra attributed to, 45 
His work in Sarteano, 269 
Niccolo, Lorenzo di, his S. Fina, 33 
Nicholas IV, Pope, 32 
Nicodemus, Gospel of, 307 
"Night Obscure," the, 143 
"NinfaleFiesolano," 21 
Norcia, 188 
Novello, Guido, Podesta of Arezzo, 

299 
At Campaldino, 301 
Fights at Colle, 53-55 

Olcott, Lucy, 138 

" Guide to Siena," q,v. 
Olivetani, Congregation of, 181, 

184 note 
Ombrone River, the, 198 
Onions, miracle of the, 62-64 
Opus Anglicanum in Pienza, 235 
Orazio, Giulia di, 136 
Orbetello, 247, 251 note, 252 
Orcia, the, 253, 259, 267 
Ordelaffi, Francesco, 21 
Order of Strict Observance, 164 
Orgia, 241, 320 
Ormanni, Antoniolo, his work in 

Siena, 116 
Orsini, Ceccolo degli, 99 

Forces the battle of Torrita, 215, 
216 
Orvieto, 270, 317 

Allied with Florence, 84 
with Montepulciano, 82, 83, 220 
with Sarteano, 268 
At war with Siena, 277 
Duomo, the, 71, 148, 185 
Compared with Siena, 105, 106, 
109, III 
Its hold on Cetona, 270, 271 
on Chiusi, 277 



Orvieto — continued 

Overcomes Arezzo, 298 

Signorelli in, 185 287 
Osenna, S. Quirico in, 238 
Osservanti, the, in Castel-Fioren- 

tino, 5, 6 
Ostasio da Polenta, 21 
Otho IV visits Siena, 80 
Ottos, the, in Volterra, 44 

Pacchia, Girolamo del, his work in 
Sarteano, 269 
His work in Siena, 126, 131, 135, 
138, 141, 159 
in Sinalunga, 210 
Pupils of, 176 
Pacchiarotto, his work in Buoncon- 
vento, 243 
His work in Montalcino, 250 

in Siena, 114, 159 
Pupils of, 173, 272 
Padua, Petrarch in, 21 

Work of Giotto in, 195 
Paglia, the River, 280 
Paleologus, Tomasso, 235 
" Palio and Ponte," by William 
Hey wood, 85 note, 113 note, 
136, 305 note 
Palio, the, run in Siena, 93 
Palma, 223 
Palmeria, Suor, 144 
Pampinea, 17 
Pancole, 241 

Paolo, Giovanni di, his work in 
Asciano, 176 
His work in Castiglione Fioren- 
tino, 296 
in Castiglione d' Orcia, 254 
in Colle, <;] 
in Pienza, 236 
in Siena, 126, 127, 138-140, 

158 
Papanti-Girandi, 322 
Paris, Boccaccio born in, 16 
Passignano, 267 
Patrizi, Patrizio, 182 
*• Pavement Masters of Siena, The," 

112 note 
Pazzi, the, 55 

Conspiracy, 99, 321 

Rule Arezzo, 304 
Pazzi, Guglielmo, 300 

Warned by S. Margarita, 293 



350 SIENA AND SOUTHEEN TUSCANY 



Pecci, Bishop, " Memorise," 130 
note 
On the Duomo, Siena, 106 
Tomb of, 115 
Pecora, Niccolo del, in Montepul- 

ciano, 220 
Pecorai, Tacco Monaceschi de', 259 
Pecori, Luigi, on S. Gimignano, 27 
Pelasgi, the, take Cortona, 283 
Pelliciaio, Giacomo di Mino di Neri 
del, his work in Siena, ill, 
121, 132 
Perkins, F. Mason, 138, 176 note, 208 
Ascriptions of, 205, 208, 250 
On Fei, 157 
Staggia's debt to, 65 
Persians, Cosdroe, King of the, 310, 

311 

Perugia, 96, 145, 270 

At War with Siena, 203, 215 

Claims Montepulciano, 220 

Her hold on Chiusi, 277 
on Lucignano, 203 

Her rule in the contado, 331 

S. Bernardino in, 163 

S. Lorenzo, 305 

Seizes Arezzo, 298, 305 

Taddeo Bartoli in, loi 

Tramway of, 221 
Perugino, his work in Borgo San 
Sepolcro, 318 

His work in Siena, 128 

School of, 296 

Umbrian landscapes by, 273 
Peruzzi, Baldassare, his work at 
Belcaro, 167 

His work in Chiusi, 278 
at S. Ansano and II Martirio, 

173 
in Siena, 116, 127 
Pescia, held by the Manenti, 268 
Petrarch, born in Arezzo, 297, 314 
His friendship with Boccaccio, 

13, 16, 21-24 
His love for Laura, 19 
Offered chair in the Florentine 
University, 21 
Petrignano, 279 
Petrucci, F., "I Confini Senesi," 

333 
Petrucci, Pandolfo, 121, 220, 271 
His work in Siena, 164 
Tomb of, 165 



Pheidias, 151, 152 

Piagente, Lapa di Puccio di, 141 

Piccinino, Jacopo di Niccolo, takes 

Cetona, 271 
Piccolomini, the, in Montalcino, 247 
In Pienza, 232 
Monument of, 116 
Piccolomini, Ambrogio, joins Ber- 
nardo Tolomei, 182 
Piccolomini, Ascanio, quarrels with 

Tommasi, 136 
Piccolomini, Cardinal Francesco, 
builds the Library, Siena, 
Il6 
see Pius II and III 
Piccolomini, Count Silvio, 234 
Piccolomini, Tommaso, tomb of, 

112 
Piceno, 265 

'* Pictorial Chronicle of Siena, A," 
by William Hey wood, 97 
note, 112 note, i3onote, 134, 
321 
Pienza, cope of Pio II in, 235, 236 
Duomo, 180, 230, 232 
History of, 231 
Inn of, 232, 237 
Museo, 234-237 
Palazzo del Municipio, 230, 233 
Palazzo Piccolomini, 230, 234, 

237 
S. Francesco, 233 
S. Vito and S. Modesta, 233 
Situation of, 171, 199, 223, 229, 
254, 267 
Pietro da Cortona, his work in 
Arezzo, 315 
His work in Cortona, 284 
Pietro, Lando di, architect of 

Duomo, Siena, no 
Pietro, Onofrio, 36 
Pietro, Sano di, 49 

His work in Badia a Isola, 67 
in Buonconvento, 243 
in Cetona, 272 
in Chiusi, 278 
in Montalcino, 249 
in Pienza, 235 

in Siena, 97, 114, 123, 126, 
127, 131, 133, 138-140, 158, 
164 
in Sinalunga, 212 
in S. Quirico, 2^8 



INDEX 



351 



Pietroni, Pietro, 22 
Pieve Asciata, 85 
Pilatus, Leon, 22 

Pintoricchio, his work in Siena, 
112, 115, 116-118 

His work in S. Gimignano, 32 

Peruzzi, the assistant of, 173 

School of, 248, 272 

Tomb of, 139 
Pisa, 30, 31, 298 

Allied with Siena, 84 

Archbishop of, 264 

At war with Florence, 82, 83, 304 

Baptistery of, 115 

Campo Santo, 155 

Defeated at Meloria, 329 

Duomo of. III, 251 

Ghibellines in, 52 

Held by Volterra, 40 

Plenry VII at, 240, 320 

Leaning Tower, 180 

Piazza del Duomo, 104 

S. Catherine in, 145 

Submits to Florence, 84 

Taddeo Bartoli in, loi 
Pisan School of Architecture, 105 

School of Sculpture, 106 
Pisano, Giovanni, his influence on 
the Lorenzetti, 154 

His work in Siena, 106, 114 
Pisano, Giunta, School of, 141 
Pisano, Niccol6, his work in Siena, 

107, 114 
Pistoia, allied with Siena, 84 

Fights at Campaldino, 299-302 

Ghibellines in, 52 

Siege of, 1305, 29 
Pitigliano, 252 

Pius I, portrait by Vecchietta, 235 
Pius II canonizes S. Catherine, 235 

Career of, 116, 117 

Cope of, 235 

His buildings in Pienza, 232-234 

His gifts to Siena, 115, 116, 134 

On Monte Oliveto, 183 
St. Catherine, 144 

Portraits of, 116-118, 237 

Relics of, 236 

Statue of, Siena, 116 
Pius III, coronation of, 116 
Pliny, 281 

Poggi di Petrignano, 279 
Poggibonsi, 26, 81 



Poggibonsi — continued 

Allied with Siena, 52, 53, 58 

Castello, the, 57, 58 

Claimed by many, 3 

Destroyed by Florence, 65, d^ 

History of, 320 

Henry VII at, 4, 29, 240, 319 

Podesta of, favours Florence, 
82 

Rocca of, 28 

Renounced by Florence, 91 
by Siena, 82, 83 

S. Lucchese's life in, 60 

Situation of, 51, 57 

Staggia united with, 64 

Taken by Florence, 54 
Poggio delle Donne, 332 
Poggio Imperiale, 59, 321 

Battle of, 99 
Poggio de' Ripoli, 90 
Poggiomarturi, 59 
Poggio Montotto, 272 
Poggio S. Cecilia, Ghibellines in, 

329 
Situation of, 201 
Poliziano, Angelo, born at Monte- 

pulciano, 224 
PoUaiuoli, the pupils of, 158 
Pollaiuolo, Antonio, Communion of 

S. Mary of Egypt, 64 
Pollaiuolo, Pietro, his Coronation of 

the Virgin, 35, 37 
Pompey, wars against, 297 
Pontassieve, 299 
Poor Clares, the, 5, 6 
Poppi, 3CX) 
Populonia, destroyed by the Ma- 

remma, 40 
Porto Pisano, 84 
Pozzuolo, 279 
Prato, 85 

Fights at Campaldino, 296 
Leagued against the Ghibellines, 

329 
The Madonna's girdle in, 216 
Provenzano, Madonna of, 135-7 
Puccini, Puccino de', in Cetona, 

271 
Pulci, on the Val di Chiana, 280 
Punic War, 297 
" Purgatorio," Ghino di Tacco in, 

258 
Sapia of Siena in, 56 



352 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 



Quattrocento, work of the, in Siena, 

126, 148 
Querela, Jacopo della, his work in 

Siena, 121, 133, 148 
Quercia, Primo della, his work in 

Siena, 122, 172 
Quiriacus, Bishop, 310 

Radicofani, Castello of, 253, 258 
Ghino di Tacco in, 207, 254, 258, 

260, 267 
Great Duke's Inn, 255 
History of, 254, 255 
Palazzo del Governo, 255 
Revolts from Rome, 260 
S. Agata, 256 
S. Antonio, 255 
S. Pietro, 255, 256 
Seized by Siena, 253 
Situation of, 165, 171, 180, 210, 
229, 238, 252, 254, 265, 
270 
Usurer of, 256-258 
View from, 265 
Raimondo on S. Catherine's 

mother, 141 
Rainuccio visits S. Lucchese, 62 
Raneria, 291, 292 
Ranieri, Bishop, places Siena under 

interdict, 325 
Rapolano, Church of the Fraternita, 
200 
Histor>' of, 199, 200 
S. Maiia Assunta, 199 
S. Vittorio, 199, 200 
Situation of, 198, 199, 201 
Ravenna, Boccaccio in, 21 
Razzi on Poggibonsi, 321 
Renaissance, Boccaccio's influence 
on the, 14 
Its influence on Italian archi- 
tecture, 109 
Repetti, " Dizionario," 321 
on Castel-Fiorentino, i 
on Sinalunga, 207 
on the Counts of Sarteano, 268 
Ricciarelli, 45 

Riccio, his work at Monte Oliveto, 
192 
His work in Siena, 115 
Rimini, Carlo Malatesta of, 271 
Rinaldo, Francesco di, his work in 
Siena, 96 



Rinaldo, Minuccio di, his work in 

Siena, 96 
Ripoli, abbey of, 299 
Robbia, Andrea della, his bust of 
S. Linus, 45 

His work in Arezzo, 314, 315 
in Montepulciano, 223 
in Siena, 164 
in Radicofani, 256 

School of, 66 
Robbia, Giovanni della, his work 
in Monte Oliveto, 197 

His work in Volterra, 47 
Robert of Naples, King, 18, no 

Opposes Henry III, 240, 319 
Rocca d' Orcia, 223 
Rocca of Poggibonsi, 28 
Romagna, the, 21, 298 

Barons of the, 117 
Romagnoli, the, fight at Campal- 

dino, 299 
Romans defeated by Hannibal, 281 
Rome, 41, 172, 265, 266 

Charles of Anjou in, 268 

Establishes Catholicism, 44 

Fall of, 60 

Floods in, 1902, 112 

Governs Arezzo, 297 

Height of buildings in, 108 

Henry VII, in, 240 

Her connection with Siena, 77, 
95» 322 

In Volterra, work of, 41, 43, 44 

Palatine, the, 43 

Petrarch in, 21, 314 

Roads to, 75, 78, 81, 238, 239 

S. Augustine in, 37 

S. Benedict in, 188 

S. Bernardino in, 164 

S. Maria Maggiore, 139 

S. Peter's, 151, 227, 240 

S. Verdiana's pilgrimage to, II 

Situation of, 297 

Urban returns to, 145 

Vanishing beauty of, 69 
Romeo's Rosaline, 17 
Romulus, 43 
Rondine, 303 
Rosario, battle of, 79 
Rosellino, Antonio, his work in 

Arezzo, 314 
Rosellino, Bernardo, his work in 
Pienza, 23, 237 



/I 



INDEX 



353 



Rossi, P., on the connection of 

Siena with Rome, 322 
Rotharis, King of the Longobards, 

n 

Rovere, Francesco Maria della, 

Duke of Urbino, takes 

Cetona, 271 
Rupert of Flanders, defeated at 

Castel-Fiorentino, 4, 319, 

320 

S. Ansano, Converts of, 77, 167 
Imprisonment of, 128 
Martyrdom of, 173 
Patron of Siena, 77, 95 
S. Ansano a Dofana, church of, 173 
S. Antimo, 250, 251 
S. Antonino, 284 note 
S. Bernardino, 73 
Cell of, 165 
Founder of the Convent of the 

Osservanza, 161, 164 
In Siena, 94, 95 
Life of, 161-164 
Miracles of, 163 
Relics of, 164 

Serves the plague-stricken, 122, 
162 
S. Casciano, 265, 319, 321 

Castello of, 59 
S. Catherine of Genoa, 184 
S. Catherine of Siena, 30, 73, 148 
Canonized by Pius II, 116-118, 

235 
Childhood of, 141, 142 
Company of, 122 
Enters a Dominican Order, 143 
Her mission to Avignon, 145 
Letters of, 146 

Ministers in the Ospedale, 122 
Political missions of, 145, 146 
Portrait of, 141 

Receives the Stigmata, 141, 146 
Relics of, 141 
Serves the sick, 144, 145 
Visions of, 142, 143, 146 
S. Chiara, 43 

S. Chiara of Montefalco, 37 
S. Domenico appears to S. Cathe- 
rine, 143 
At Lecceto, 167 
S. Donato, battle-cry of Arezzo, 
301 

AA 



S. Fina, frescoes of, 38 

Patron saint of S. Gimignano, 9, 

26, 28, 31, 32 
Shrine of, 34, 36 
Story of, 34, 35 
S. Fiora, 78, 253 and note 
della Robbian ware in, 256 
Sforza of, 271, 277 
At enmity with Tacco, 260, 

264 
In Radicofani, 255, 256 
S. Francis of Assisi, 30, 195, 202 
Frescoes of life of, in Castel- 
Fiorentino, 5 
Order of, 5, 59, 60 

S. Bernardino joins, 162 
S. Lucchese joins, 59, 60 
S. Margarita joins, 292 
Visits S. Verdiana, 12 
S. Genesio, walls of, destroyed, 3 
S. George, by Bartolo di Fredi, 205 
S. Giacomo di Compostella, 1 1 
S. Gimignanello, 201 
S. Gimignano, 15, 27, 32, 51, 248, 

319 

Allied with Florence, 28, 29, 85 

At war with Volterra, 29 

by Gozzoli, 37 

Collegiata, 33-36 

Dante in, 26, 29, 31 

Frescoes of, 38 

Fights at Campaldino, 299 

History of, 27-30 

Inn of, 245 

Palazzo del Commune, 31-33 

Piazza del Podesta, 31 

Present peace of, 31, 36, 38 

Road to Volterra from, 39 

S. Agostino, 36-38 

S. Fina, the patron saint of, 35 

Situation of, 8, 26, 27 

Wooden statues of, 47 
S. Giovanni, Cavaliere di, 264 
S. Giovanni, feast of, 303 
S. Giusto, 43, 44 
S. Greciniana, 48 
S. Ippolito di Castel-Fiorentino, 3 
S. Leonardo al Lago, 169 
S. Linus, Pope, 45 
S. Lucchese, church of, 59 

Story of, 59-64 
S. Lucesio, see S. Lucches« 
S. Margarita, 279, 282 



354 SIENA AND SOUTHEKN TUSCAISTY 



S. Margarita — continued 

Death of, 294 

Her birth and early life, 287 

Her life in Cortona, 291-294 
in Montepulciano, 288, 289 

Her penitence, 290 

Her political work, 293 

House of, 279, 287 
S. Mustiola in Chiusi, 275, 277 
S. Niccola, 236 

S. Peter's, Rome, 151, 227, 240 
S. Pietro di Pisangoli, 12 
S. Placidus, story of, 190-192 
S. Quirico d' Orcia, 199, 252, 255 

Church of S. Quirico and S. 
Giulitta, 237 

Its former importance, 238 

Situation of, 171, 237, 238 
S. Salvatore, see Badia di S. Sal- 

vatore 
S. Salvi, 319 
S. Secondiano, 277 
S. Verdiana, patron saint of Castel- 
Fiorentino, 6 

Pictures of, 6, 14 

Story of, 9-12 
Salimbeni, the, at Belcaro, 166 

In Castiglione d' Orcia, 253 
Salvani, Provenzano, counsels 
Siena against Frederic I, 

83 
Counsels Siena to spare Florence, 

91 
Described by Dante, begging in 

Siena, 94 
Governor of Siena, 53-56 
Salvucci, the, 28, 30, 36 
Sangallo, Antonio da, his buildings 
in Montepulciano, 222, 227 
His work in Arezzo, 315 
Sangallo, Giulio da, his work in 

Cortona, 284 
Sansedoni, Beato Ambrogio, 97 
Sansovino, Andrea, his font in 

Volterra, 46 
Sapia, of Siena, her confession in 

the " Purgatorio," 56 
Saracini, the, 169 
Sarteano, Collegiata, 269 
Counts of, 268 
History of, 268, 269 
Situation of, 267, 268, 270 
SS. Lorenzo e Apollinare, 268 



Sarteano — continued 

S. Martino, 269 

Villa Bargagli, 269 
Sassetta (Giovanni di Stefano), 49, 

195 
His work in Asciano, 165, 175, 
178 
in Cortona, 286 
in Pienza, 236 

in Siena, 73, in, 112, 114, 
115, 126, 138, 149, 157,158, 
165 
School of, 158, 296 
Savonarola, in S. Gimignano, 33 
Scanagallo, battle of, 331-333 
Scialenghe, the, 268 
Dominate Asciano, 174 
Lords of Foiano, 213 
Rapolano, 199 
S. Gimignanello, 201 
Sinalunga, 208 
Scipio Africanus, 40, 297 
Segna, his work in Montepulciano, 
223 
His work in Siena, 153, 154 
School of, 196 
Sellajo, his work in Arezzo, 315 
Selva, the, 168, 279 
Semifonte, fortress of, 3, 4 

Seized by Florence, 81 
Sena Vetus, 77 

Senones, Brennus, captain of, 77 
Serpents of S. Verdiana, 6, 9, 11,12 
Serre, a visit to, 200, 201 
Settignano, 16 

Olivetani at, 184 note 
Sforza, the, in Radicofani, 255, 

256 
Sforza, Maria, takes Cetona, 271 

Takes Chiusi, 277 
Siena, History and general — 
13, 26, 29, 38, 51, 172, 320 
At peace with Florence, 1255, 84 
At war with Arezzo, 165, 199 
with Florence for Montepul- 
ciano, 28, 64, 66, 79, 80, 
81-83, 219-221 
with Florence for Talamone, 

84 
with Perugia, 203, 215 
Badge of, 'j'] 

Beato Bernardo de' Tolomei in, 
182 



INDEX 



355 



Siena — continued 

Besieges Poggio S. Cecilia, 329 
Black Death in, 96, 183 
Builders of Monteriggione, 65 
Byzantine influence in, 72, 151, 

153 

Challenged by Florence, 85-89 

Charm of, 68-74 

Dante in, 93, 94 

Dedications of, to the Madonna, 

113, 114, 129 
Defeated at Colle, 28, 54-56, 91, 
92 

at Scanagallo, 331 
Defeats Florence at Camollia, 
130 

at Montaperto, 85-91, 326, 
328 
Duccio's Majestas in, 118-121 
Excommunicated, 91 
Fall of, 53, 326-329, 331 
Famine in, 136 
Fights at Campaldino, 299 
Forces against, 75 
Frederic II visits, 83 
Ghibellines in, 4, 84 
Guelfs in, 92 
Guild of, 158 
Henry VII at, 4 
Her allegiance to the Emperor, 

79, 80 
Her early alliance with Rome, 

76, 'JT, 141, 321, 322 
Her hold on Cetona, 270, 271 

on Chiusi, 277 

on Lucignano, 202-204, 215 

on Sarteano, 268, 269 

on Sinalunga, 208 
Her period of greatness, 76 
Her rule in the contado^ 81, 204, 

325, 330 
Her struggle against the great 

feudatories, 81 
Humbles the Aldobrandeschi, 

82 
Joins the Tuscan League, 3 
Noises of, 70, 95 
Occupies Rapolano, 199, 200 
Palio run in, 93 
Placed under an interdict, 325 
Present peace of, 30, 31 
Psychological influence of the 

landscape of, 72-74, 76 



Siena — continued 

Power of, after Montaperto, 53 

of the Bishop in, 78, 323 
Rise of the Commune of, 79, 80, 

324,325 
of feudalism in, 78 
Road to, 57, 58, 65, 67 
S. Bernardino in, 163 
Seizes Castiglione d' Orcia, 253 
Lucignano, 303 
Radicofani, 253 
Situation of, 68, 74, 75, 93, 103, 
131,150, 171, 172,229,265, 
297 
Syndic of, 86-88 
Tacco in, 259 
Tolomei in, 181 
Trade of, 80, 81, 253 
Under the Council of Nine, 92, 
124, 215, 326, 328 
the Council of the Twelve, 

215, 329 
the Council of Twenty- Four, 
83, 85-92, 326 
Water-supply of, 43, 76, 127 
Siena, Churches^ gates, palaces^ 
piazzas, streets, etc. — 
Accademia delle Belle Arti, loi, 

153-159, 181, 184, 209 
Baptistery of, 109, 1 21, 148 
Baths of, 261 
Belcaro, 160, 166, 167 
Bishop's Palace, ill 
Camollia, 89 
Campanile, 118 
Campo of, 71, 88, 330 
Cappella della Piazza, 95 

della Volta, 141, 143 
Chapel of the Seminario, 137 
Carmine, 127 

Castel di Camollia, 124, 125 
di Val di Montone, 124, 125 
Vecchio, 124, 128 
Communal Library, 241 
Convent of the Osservanza, 148, 
160, 164 
of S. Margherita, 127 
of the Santuccio, 133 
Costarella, 125 

Duomo of, 65, 69, 71-73, lOl, 
203 
Cappella di S. Ansano, 115 
Cappella di S. Bonifazio, 114 



356 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 



Siena — continued 

Cappella di S. Giovanni, no, 

115 

Cappella del Voto, in, 112 

Date of building, 106, 107, 
109-111, 148 

Duccio's Majestas carried to, 
119, 120, 153 

Its fa9ade, 105, 106, 109, in 

Its interior, in 

Its mosaic pavement, 112, 118 

Its pulpit, 1 14 

Its sacristy, 1 14 

Services in, before the battle of 
Montaperto, 86-89 

Subsequent additions to, IIO, I li 
Fontebranda, 141, 142 
Fonte Gaia, 148 
Forteguerri de' Grandi, 127 
Fortezza, 139 
II Ministero, 165, 166 
Lecceto, 160, 167-170 
Lizza, the, 69, 71 
Loggia dei Nobili, 70, 155 
Loggia del Papa, 134, 155 
Misericordia, 131 
Opera del Duomo, 118-121, 153, 

154, 155 
Oratorio di S. Bernardino, 137 
Ospedale di S. Maria della Scala, 

105, 122, 154, 156, 162 
Osservanza, loi 
Palazzo Buonsignori, 127 

Celsi, 127 

dei Diavoli, 148 

Finetti, 128 

del Magnifico, 12 1 

Piccolomini, 129, 134 

Pubblico, 71. 93. 95-103. ii4, 
125, 129, 135, 148, 154, 155, 
216, 321, 328 

Salimbeni, 138 

Saracini, 125-127, 154, 156 

di S. Galgano, 133 

Spannocchi, 138 

Tantucchi, 138 
Passaggio della Lizza, 139 
Piazza del Campo, 93-95, 97, 
104, 119, 128, 129, 135 

del Duomo, 104, 122 

di Postierla, 127 

di S. Agostino, 128 

di S. Donato, 138 



Siena — continued 

Piazza di S. Francesco, 137 

di S. Giovanni, 104, 105, 12I 

Tolomei, 85, 135 
Piccolomini Library, in, 116 
Porta CamoUia, 70, 77, 82, 117, 
128, 133, 139 

Fontebranda, 166 

Laterina, 104 

Ovile, 138, 160, 165, 198 

del Perdono, 112 

Pispini, 89 note 

Romana, 70, 133, 171, 172, 
180, 246 

S. Marco, 128, 165 

San Viene, 89 

Tufi, 183 
Rifugio, 133 
S. Agostino, loi, 128, 132, 154, 

155 
S. Ansano, 128 
S. Barbara, 72, 171 
S. Bartolommeo, 139 
S. Benedetto, 196 
S. Chiara, 133 
SS. Chiodi, 138 
S. Cristofano, 85, 86, 88, 135 
S. Domenico, 71, loi, 139-144, 

S. Donato, 138 

S. Eugenio, 155, 160 

see II Ministero 
S. Francesco, 71, lOl, 139, 140, 

IS4, 155 
S. Galgano, 133 
S. Giovanni, 121, 122, 148 
S. Girolamo, 131 
S. Giusto, 131 
S. Lucia, 128 

S. Martino, 89, 129-131, 156 
S. Maria delle Nevi, 139, 148 
S. Maria di Provenzano, 135-137 
S. Mustiola, 128 
S. Pietro Ovile, 138, 155 
S. Pietro della Ragione, 82 
S. Pietro della Scala, 127 
S. Spirito, 133 
S. Stefano, 139 
SS. Trinita, 132 
Seminario Vescovile, 169 
Servi, the, 131, 132, 155 
Terzo di Camollia, 124, 125, 135- 

147 



INDEX 



357 



Siena — continued 

Terzo di Citta, 124-128 

Terzo di S. Martino, 124, 125, 

129-134 
Torre del Mangia, 48, 71, 73, 96, 

148, 222 
Via Baldassare Peruzzi, 127, 128 
Benincasa, 141 
di Camellia, 139 
del Casato, 128 
Cavour, 69, 70, 125, 134, 

135, 138, 139 
della Cerchia, 128 
della Citta, 125, 127 
Curtatone, 139 
Gazzani, 139 
del Giglio, 137 
dei Pispini, 133 
di Provenzano di Sotto, 136 
Ricasoli, 125, 1 33-135 
Romana, 133, 135 
de' Rossi, 137, 138 
Sallustio Bandini, 135 
di S. Martino, 131 
di S. Marco, 128 
di S. Pietro, 127, 128 
di S. Pietro Ovile, 138 
di S. Quirico, 128 
di Tommaso Pendola, 127, 128 
di Val Montone, 133 
Well of Diana, 127 
Siena, Bishop of, 163, 233 

His allegiance to Emperor and 

Pope, ^^, 322-325 
His exhortations before Monta- 
perto, 86, 113 note 
In the fifth century, 77 
Cardinal of, see Pius II 
** Siena Monumentale," 67 note 
Sienese courtesy, 244 
" Sienese Painter of the Fran- 
ciscan Legend, A," by B. 
Berenson, 175 note 
Sienese school of painting con- 
trasted with the Florentine, 

149-153 
Duccio, the founder of, 118, 

149 
Its conservatism, 1 49-1 51 
Work of, in Badia a Isola, 66 
in Volterra, 48 
Sigismund, Emperor in Rome, 164 
Signa, 76 



Signorelli, Luca, compared with 
Piero della Francesca, 313 
His work in Arezzo, 314, 315 
in Borgo San Sepolcro, 317 
in Castiglione Fiorentino, 296 
in Cortona, 283, 285, 286 
in Foiano, 213, 214 
in Lucignano, 205 
in Monte Oliveto, 184-187, 

192-196 
in Montepulciano, 225 
in Orvieto, 185, 287, 317 
in Sinalunga, 211 
in Volterra, 46, 49 
School of, 248, 284 
Silvio da Fiesole, his work in 

Volterra, 46 
Silvio, Enea, 232, 233 
Sinalunga, history of, 208, 259, 264 
La Torre, 208, 210 
Madonna delle Nevi, 210, 211 
Palazzo Pubblico, 210, 211 
S. Bernardino, 210, 21 1 
S. Croce, 210, 211 
S. Lucia, 210, 211 
S. Martino, 208, 210 
S. Pietro, 208 
Situation of, 207 
Sinigaglia, 276 

Sixtus IV leagued with Siena, 321 
Snuff made at Poggibonsi, 321 
Sodoma, his work in Oliveto, 184- 
196 
His work in Montepulciano, 226 
in Siena, 97, 98, 123, 128, 133, 
140, 141, 159, 165 
Pupils of, 176, 249 
Vasari on, 185-196 
Sovana, Aldobrandeschi of, 252 
Spain, landscape beauty of, 229 
Spaniards capture Belcaro, 167 
Spanuocchi, the, in Montalcino, 

247 
Spira, Corrado, Bishop of, 66 
Spoleto, 180 

Longobards in, 276 
Spugnole, Badia of, 54 
Staggia, 81 
Allied with Siena, 52 
History of, 64 
Pieve di S. Maria, 64 
Renounced by Florence, 91 
Situation of, 64 



358 SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 



" St. Catherine of Siena," by E. G. 
Gardner, 142 note 

Stefano, Giovanni di, see Sassetta 

Stigliano, 241, 320 

" Storia dei Communi Italiani," 
322 

" Story of Siena," by E. G. Gard- 
ner, 77 note, 130 note 

Strada, 279 

Strambi, Domenico, 33 
Patron of artists, 37 

Strozzi, Pietro, defeated at Scana- 
gallo, 331 
Fortifies II Ministero, 166 

Sulla besieges Volterra, 40, 44 

Sulmona, 25 

Susinana, Maghinardo di, 299 

Symonds, J. A., on the Marzocco 
Inn, 222 

Tacco, Ghino di, 59-265 

Cures the Abbot ot Cligni, 
261-264 

Death of, 265 

His birth at Sinalunga, 207 

in Radicofani, 254, 258, 260 

Life of, 259-265 
Tacco, Turino di, 259 
Tacitus, on the Val di Chiana, 280 
Tagliacozzo, 53 

Battle of, 91 
Talamone, claimed by Florence, 84 
Tamagni, his work in Montalcino, 
248 

His work in S. Gimignano, 36, 

37 
Tancredi, Fulvia, 181 
Tardus orders the death of S. 

Mustiola, 275, 276 
Tarlati, the, 295 

Hold Arezzo, 298, 306 
Tarlati, Guido, 182 

Rules Arezzo, 304 

Tomb of, 305, 313 
Tarquinius Priscus, 40 

Superbus, 274 
Tavollette of Siena, 134 
Terontola, 279 
Terra Pozza, 283 
Terrosi, the, at Cetona, 271 
*'Teseide, The," 21 
Thebes, 41 
Thorney, Island of, 106 



Tiber, the, 274, 280 
Titian, 98, 313 
Todi, 227, 319 
Tolentino, S. Nicholas of, 38 
Tolomei family, the, 135 

In Montalcino, 24 
Tolomei, Bernardo de, founder of 
Monte Oliveto, 181-183, 188 

Portrait of, by Sodoma, 99 
Tolomei, Cavolino, Sienese exile, 56 
Tolomei, Giovanni de', 182 
Tolomei, Mino, 181 
Tolomei, Nello, 32 
Tommasi, Giugurta, on Tacco, 259 

Quarrels with the Archbishop, 136 
Tomme, Bartolommeo di, his work 

at Siena, 1 1 1 
Tomme, Luca di, his work in 
Montalcino, 249 

His work in Siena, 157, 216 
Tornano, claimed by Florence, 82 
Tornaquinci, Gherardo Ventraia 

de', 299 
Torrenieri, 199, 239, 249, 251, 252, 

Torrini, Signor, shop of, 134 
Torrita, battle of, 99, 208, 216 

Madonna delle Nevi, 216 

Propositura, 216 

S. Flora, 216 

Situation, 214 

Tacco in, 259, 264 
Torrita, Tacco Monaceschi de' 

Pecorai da, 259 
Totila in Chiusi, 276 
Trasimeno, Lake, 218 
Traveller's fear, 39 
Trecento, work of the, in Siena, 125 
Trequando, 223 
Trieste, Bishop of, 116 
Troy, 281 

Fall of, 40, 43 
Turamini, the, at Belcaro, 166 
Turino, Giovanni di, his work in 

Siena, 121 
Turks, crusade against, 117, 118 
Tuscan League, 328 

Decide between Florence and 
Siena, 82 

Formation of, 3 
"Tuscan Penitent, A," 287 note 
Tuscan rule in the Val di Chiana, 
280 



INDEX 



359 



Tuscany, independence of, 3, 4 
Mediaeval factions in, 52 

Ubertini, the, 304 
In Arezzo, 306 
Uberti, Farinata degli, at Chiusi, 

277 
Secures Florence from Siena, 53 
Uberti, Fazio degli, on the Val di 

Chiana, 280 
Uberti, Guglielmo, at Lucignano, 

202, 205 
Ubertini, Pazzi, Bishops of the, 

rule Arezzo, 298, 304 
Ugolino, his work in Siena, 154 
Uguccione, 29 
Umbri, the, 283 
Umbrian landscape, 201 
Urban V holds Cetona, 271 
Urban VI, election of, 146 
In Avignon, 145 
Persuaded by S. Catherine to 

return to Rome, 145 
Urbano da Cortona, his work in 

Siena, 112, 137 
Urbino, bishopric of, 163 
Urbino, Duke of, takes Cetona, 271 
Urbisaglia, 276 
Urns, cinerary, at Volterra, 64 

Vaiano, 279 
Val d'Arbia, 85, 198 
d' Arno, 2, 48, 76, 180, 202, 298, 

316, 319 
d' Asso, 219, 239 
d' Astrone, 272 
di Bestina, 174 

di Chiana, 198, 201, 202, 207, 
212, 218, 219, 264,267, 276, 
295, 298 
Character of, 270-272, 279-281 
Chuisi weds the, 333 
Dante on, 280 
Held by Florence, 81 
d' Elsa, 2, 8, 9, 13, 25, 26, 27, 
81, 82 
Characteristics of, 39, 51 
Henry VII in the, 319, 320 
di Merse, 82, 250 
di Nievole, 268 
deir Ombrone, 82, 172, 175,198, 

239, 244 
d' Orcia, 230, 233, 259, 267 



Val di Paglia, 258, 259 

di Pesa, 85 

di Seriate, 239 

di Tevere, 298, 316 

di Tresa, 279 

di Tuomo, 239 
Vallombrosa, 79, 180 
Vanni, Andrea, his work in Siena, 
125, 126, 138, 139, 141,155. 
156, 166 
Vanni, Lippo, his work in Siena, 

97 
Vasari, 150 

Born in Arezzo, 297, 305 
His work in Arezzo, 315 
On Beccafumi's S. Michael, 127 
On Duccio's Majestas, 119 
On Signorelli's Pieta, 285 
On Sodoma, 185-196 
On Taddeo Bartoli, loi 
School of, 7 
Vecchietta, Lorenzo, his work in 
Badia a Isola, 67 
His work in Castiglione, 254 
in Montalcino, 248 
in Pienza, 235, 236 
in Siena, 97, 102, 114, 122, 
127, 139, 149, 158 
Pupils of, 158 
Vechietti, Marsilio de', 300 
Velasquez, 98 

Velletri, Bishop Giovanni da, 2 
Venice, 115 

Boccaccio in, 24 

Her campaign against Frederick 

Barbarossa, 102 
Vanishing beauty of, 69 
Weds the Adriatic, 333 
Ventraiade' Tornaquinci, Gherardo, 

299 
Ventura, Angelo di, his work in 

Siena, 133 
Ventura, Niccolo di Giovanni di 

Francesco, 85 note 
Vettori, Francesco, on Camollia, 

131 
Via Aretina, 150 

Francigena, 65, 75, 133, 135, 150, 
171, 198, 219 
From S. Quirico to Buoncon- 

vento, 239 
Highroad to Rome, 2 
To Radicofani, 252 



36o SIENA AND SOUTHERN TUSCANY 



Vignola, his work in Montepulciano, 

222 

Villani, Giovanni, " Cronica," 277, 
320 
On the battle of Montaperto, 90, 

91 
On Bocca degli Abati, 90 
On Campaldino, 298-304 
On Colle, 51, 54-56 
On Lucignano, 202 
On Siena, *j^ note 
Villari, Professor, 320 

*' I primi due Secoli," 330 
Vincigliata, 180 

Visconti, Teodora, portrait of, 296 
Visconti of Milan, the arms of, 
296 
Holds Lucignano, 203 
Montepulciano, 220 
Siena, 208 
Rebuked by S. Bernardino, 163 
Viterbo, 266 
Volpe, G., Questioni fondamentalii 

323 
Volterra, 283 

Allied with Florence, 85 

At war with S. Gimignano, 29 

Badia, the, 44, 48 

Baptistery, 46 

Chapel of the Holy Cross, 47 

Duomo of, 45, 46, 49 

Fights at Campaldino, 299 

Fortezza, 42 

History of, 40, 44 

Inn of, 245 

Leagued against the Ghibellines, 

329 
Le Baize, 43' 44» 49 
Municipio, 48, 49 
Museo Guarnacci, 44 



Volterra — continued 
Oratorio di S. Carlo, 46 
Palazzo dei Priori, 48 

Tagassi, 44 
Pinacoteca of, 48 
Piscina of, 42, 44 
Porta air Arco, 42-44 

di Docciola, 42 

Menseri, 42 

Pisana, 42 

S. Felice, 42, 43 

S. Francesco, 42, 44 
Ruins of four different ages in, 

41, 43 
S. Francesco, 46, 49 
S. Girolamo, 47, 49 
S. Lino, 46 
S. Michele, 47 
S. Pietro, 47 
S. Salvatore, 44 
S. Stefano, 44 

Situation of, 39-42, 49, 51,171 
Slight influence of Rome in, 41, 

43' 44 
Volterra, Bishop of, joins the Tuscan 
League, 3 
Places S. Gimignano under an 

interdict, 32 
Rules S. Gimignano, 28 
Volterra, Daniele da, see Daniele 
Voragine, Jacques de, his legend of 
the Holy Cross, 307 

Warnefred, 165 

Wells, miracles of the, 190 

Westminster Abbey, 151 

Contrasted with the Duomo of 
Siena, 106-108 

Zanobi, Conte, 66 




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